A resident of Shelter Island, New York has filed a lawsuit against people he claims allowed Beyoncé to secretly film part of her visual album Black is King at the former home of its first European settler.
Beyoncé filmed scenes for the project in the summer of 2019 at the Sylvester Manor Education Farm, which sits on Native American land that was purchased by Nathaniel Sylvester and used as a slaveholding provisioning plantation.
Mike Gaynor, a donor to the Manor, filed suit in New York Supreme Court last week naming the town of Shelter Island, its trustees and the Community Preservation Fund board as defendants.
Gaynor told Page Six he was “deeply offended” to learn that the Manor allowed Beyoncé to use the “wholly sacred ground” as a location.
He said: “There are at least 200+ enslaved Africans and Manhasset Indians buried on their land and so that’s just not a place where you film a dance-off.”
Shortly after the premiere of Black is King in July, the Manor’s curator and archivist Donnamarie Barnes told the Shelter Island Reporter: “We believe Beyoncé chose our site understanding the cultures who lived and worked together at Sylvester Manor and the importance they have played in the Manor's nearly 400 year history. Beyoncé and her dancers performing on the land of the Manor paid tribute to the Ancestors of Sylvester Manor, invoking their spirits and celebrating their heritage.”