This post originally appeared on Vogue.
If you managed to get to Tate Modern to experience Kara Walker’s 42-foot-tall “Fons Americanus” at some point in 2020, consider yourself extremely lucky. If not, take comfort in FKA Twigs’s monumental “Don’t Judge Me” video, released on 26 January, which features an army of pioneering Black leaders engaging with Walker’s masterful commentary on the legacy of the slave trade. A response to the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, Walker’s Turbine Hall fountain depicts the mythical origins of the African diaspora – while Twigs’s artful choreography represents the “struggle against an invisible oppressor”.
Among the cultural luminaries in the video? Model Munroe Bergdorf, entrepreneur Nicole Crentsil, poets Solomon O B and Benjamin Zephaniah, footballer Mahlon Romeo, and trainer Efua Baker, along with a number of activists featured on British Vogue’s September 2020 cover, from broadcaster and DJ Clara Amfo to author of Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge.
Featuring Headie One and Fred Again…, the track is a follow-up to Twigs’s appearance on the rapper and producer’s 2020 mixtape, GANG – with Twigs revealing that she finished a whole album during lockdown, her first since 2019’s critically acclaimed Magdalene. “So proud to release ‘Don’t Judge Me’ into this world,” the 33-year-old wrote on Instagram. “This project is very personal and special to me. It was an honour to shoot with Kara Walker’s fountain exploring the interconnection of Black history between Africa, America and Europe.”
Helping Twigs to bring the project to life? Director Emmanuel Adjei, who previously co-directed Black Is King with Beyoncé – and that’s not the only similarity the clip has to Bey’s most recent visual album. Twigs also chose to use the video to showcase the best Black-owned fashion brands now. Where the Queen goes…
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.’s weekly newsletter here.
