Beyonce makes surprise visit to University of Houston
Talk about surprises. Beyonce made a surprise appearance during my interview with Miss Tina Knowles for the University of Houston’s Friends of Women’s Studies Living Archives program. Miss Tina, a Galveston native, is being honored for her accomplishments as a mother, a businesswoman (with her own salon and now fashion line) and philanthropist. I showed up about 9 a.m. to be styled my Miss Tina’s assistant Amber, who put me in a fantastic purple wrap dress from the Miss Tina for Wal-Mart line with a pair of 5-inch platform Prada pumps. (I had my own shoes, but Amber said, “Sorry, Joy, you need to be higher. Much higher.”) Only just a few minutes before the program’s start did I learn her super-star daughter was coming. (Obviously, they wanted to keep it hush hush.) I was already nervous, but knowing Beyonce would be sitting near the front row watching me interview her mom, sort upped the nervous factor. Miss Tina (as she prefers to be called) was a gracious interview and made my job easy. She talked about her life growing up in Galveston and her business as a hairstylist and then a costume designer and stylist for Destiny’s Child. She spoke of her love for her late mother Agnez Dereon and her dedication to her two daughters (Beyonce and Solange). Miss Tina even teared up a bit. Beyonce, who sat near other family members, was just as kind. Every time I glanced at B (that’s what they call her), she smiled at me. In the back room, mannequins displayed some of Beyonce’s most recognizable red-carpet gowns, which Miss Tina designed. Beyonce’s five Grammy awards from 2003 were also on display. Then the students came. Hundreds of them (who likely got word that B was on campus via Twitter) piled into UH’s M.D. Anderson Library and began chanting, “Beyonce! Beyonce!” It even interrupted the interview for a few minutes. Beyonce, who is pregnant with her first child, was a bit bothered by the chaos since it was her mother’s big day. But afterwards the singer, wearing 5-inch heels, made a quick stop in the lobby to wave to the students: “Wow, this is crazy how fast that happens,” she said to me. “Just one tweet.”
