• Blues People (1963) by Amiri Baraka is a pathbreaking cultural history that traces the continuum of Black music, from spirituals and blues to jazz, all of which came to mind while watching Sinners. I later learned that Ryan Coogler cited the book as an influence. --Howard Rambsy II
• Chapter 10 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) --- Douglass has a chance encounter with a fellow enslaved man, who gifts Douglass a protective root that saves and changes his life in an ultimate battle with an infamous slave breaker. Almost two hundred years later, Coogler signifies on this long, Black tradition of Hoodoo spirituality for protection through the mojo bag Smoke wears, keeping him safe and alive throughout his death-defying fight scenes. --Cindy N. Reed
[Related: Toward a Poetry Reading List]
Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934) by Zora Neale Hurston is a semi-autobiographical and fictionalized portrayal of her parents’ lives—particularly Hurston's father, a Baptist preacher. As Hurston debut novel, it explores the tension between the sacred and the secular, as well as personal desire, a thematic conflict portrayed through the character ‘Preacher Boy’ in Sinners. –Danielle N. Hall
“Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934) by Zora Neale Hurston is a foundational essay in African American literary and cultural studies, that catalogs and analyzes African American cultural expression, particularly in language, dance, music, and storytelling, including social spaces like “Juke joints”—one of the main settings in the Ryan Coogler’s film Sinners. –Danielle N. Hall
Mules and Men (1935) by Zora Neale Hurston is one of the first major texts in African American literature to present Black folklore and Hoodoo spiritual practices, from the perspective of an initiate (practitioner). The second part of the book documents Hurston’s experiences learning Hoodoo in New Orleans, all of which came to mind through Annie’s character in Sinners. –Danielle N. Hall
The Sanctified Church (1981) by Zora Neale Hurston with a foreword by Toni Cade Bambara, is a compilation of short stories and ethnographic essays that examine Hoodoo practices, Black Christian worship traditions, and African American folklore, offering a nuanced exploration of Black cultural expression and spiritual life in the Black American South—all of which converge in the film Sinners. –Danielle N. Hall
Related:
No comments:
Post a Comment