jazzlynngsunkenplace - Tumblr blog

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Monkey know what Tree to Climb

Greedy Choke Puppy by Nalo Hopkinson is a short story about a young woman named Jacky who lives a double life as a monster. What’s interesting about the story is, that we don't know that Jacky is the Soucouyant until the end. Throughout the story, we see perspectives from Jacky as a woman and Jacky as the Soucouyant. As the Soucouyant, Jacky sheds her flesh and hunts the town looking for unsuspecting families with children. She even kills her friend’s newborn baby to obtain its youth. We see that slowly the urge to kill is consuming Jacky as a Soucouyant and as a young woman. At the end of the story, we see Jacky’s granny that raised her make the brutal decision to kill Jacky in order to save the other children in the town. Granny confesses that she too is a Soucouyant and had to kill her daughter (Jacky’s mother) for the same reason she will kill Jacky. 

“Greedy puppy does choke” is a well-known saying in the Caribbean that you’ll hear everyone (but especially the elders) use to warn young kids to slow down and not get caught up in something that seems too good to be true. We see it mentioned in the story when Jacky takes a taste of a hot soup instead of waiting for it to cool down and Granny scolds her for it. Proverbs are extensively used throughout the Caribbean and in Black culture. “Monkey know what tree to climb” is one of my favorites. This proverb means that in a similar way that monkeys know what trees bear fruits they can eat/ will support them as they swing, people know what limits there are to their actions. For example, in Greedy Choke Puppy, we see Granny talk to Jacky about Lagahoos and finding a husband. If it were one of Jacky’s friends questioning her she would be more inclined to brush it off or tell them to change topics (like she did at the Library with Carmen). But, because monkey know what tree to climb, Jacky knew she would just have to listen and put up with what her granny was telling her. 

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Fame and Fish

Jonah is a short film directed by Kibwe Tavares that displays the rise and fall of the main character and his relationships. At the beginning of the film, we see two best friends, Mbwana and Juma stealing a camera from a tourist on their small island home. After successfully stealing and escaping the scene, they head off to the ocean bank to relax and look at their new treasure. Mbwana asks his best friend Juma to take a picture of him in front of the ocean. A humongous fish makes a never before seen appearance and jumps out of the water at the same time Juma takes a picture of Mbwana. Mbwana then shows the picture to people and word quickly gets around the island of this huge fish. Tourism booms and the island takes on a new identity as the “Big Fish Island” and Mbwana became known as the “Big Fish Guy”. As his popularity increases, he loses his best friend (Juma) due to unforeseen fame. Because more and more tourists now visit the island, the beach has become polluted and no longer radiates as it did before the fame. As years go by, no one has seen the huge fish except for the one time in Mbwana’s picture. Years later, Mbwana comes face to face with the fish that now has trash and debris in its whiskers and body and ends up swallowing him whole. In a double ending, Mbwana tries to kill the fish the day it is discovered and still ends with the same fate. 

What I love most about the film are the many interpretations you can receive based on the plot and metaphors you pick up on. I'm from the Caribbean and the primary economic industry of my island is tourism. Because of this, my island’s government reinvests in tourist attractions and tourism that doesn't always benefit locals (that don't work in tourism). In the film, we see the benefits and negative consequences of tourism. We see many advertisements and companies promoting the Big Fish and the rise in tourists visiting the island because of it. We also see the amount of debris left on the beaches that consequently harm the environment and aquatic animals (including the Big Fish). This is an extremely real and negative effect of tourism that harms small islands like my own. We see that as the man and town age and move past their Big Fish era, the Big Fish goes from this beautiful masterpiece to an ugly burden (just like the town). In both endings when Mbwana grows old and gets swallowed by the fish and when he’s young and gets swallowed, we see that not much has changed in his life. He still remains a poor man with a desire to kill the fish. In the life where he grows old, the overconsumption of fame doesn't affect his destiny of remaining poor but allows him to lose friends and potentially be even more unhappy in the end. The very thing that made him famous and drown in popularity, swallowed him in the end. In the life where he’s young and seeks the fish after the photo, he’s still swallowed by the fish. Catching the fish, regardless of when he tried to do it, meant losing everything in the end.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Will you sacrifice yourself for the greater good?

Pumzi is a short film based in a dystopian world. There are no longer plants or trees in this world, and water is scarce among humans. Asha is the film's main character, and we see what she does in her day-to-day life living in her closed-off community. She (and everyone else in her world) lives in an encapsulated building because they believe that nature/the environment outside of their buildings is toxic and no longer provides life for them. In the film, we see the afro-futurism theme of advanced technology when Asha pees into her water jug and it converts itself back to drinkable water. When she gets to her job at the Natural History Museum, she receives a suspicious package of soil that indicates high water levels; this gives hope for a new reality for her community. 

Pumzi had many dreams about the possibility of a new world with nature. When she tells her superiors about the soil sample and her dreams, she was told to take her “dream suppressants” as well as to give up on the soil sample. Because she’s well educated on the benefits of nature and a healthy environment and feels so strongly about it, she escapes the pods to create a new future. The outside of her pod is dessert and ruin. She treks for miles through the desert to find the exact location she saw in her dreams to plant a new tree and gives her very limited water supply to the plant before she eventually dies from assumed dehydration. 

Pumzi represents a movement we often talk about in activism. Risking your life or safety for what you believe in is what we’ve seen often from the Civil Rights Era to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Though it may not always be to the same extent as Pumzi, the concept remains the same. A viral youtube video of young Pakistani kids expressing that they’ll give their life for their country in front of their peers, teachers, and parents is another example. Pumzi is a well-thought-out, beautiful short film and (as an activist myself) has a beautiful plot and learning point. The question you should ask yourself is, will you risk your life for the greater good?

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Sorry to Bother You Massa

Sorry to Bother you is a film released in 2018 that was directed and written by Boots Riley. The plot of the film consists of Cassius Green played by Lakeith Stanfield who is able to move up fairly quickly in a company by using his “white voice” to talk to customers. By doing this, he’s able to make the company thousands (maybe even millions) of dollars. He is required to use this voice so often in the workplace, that he often uses it at home in the comfort of his girlfriend, Detroit. His friends protest the company, RegalView, due to low wages and work conditions, and he decides to betray them by crossing the picket line and continuing to work for them. In his opinion, he transformed from rags to riches, with the help of RegalView. However, he decides to turn against the company when he finds out the owners of WorryFree (who owns RegalView) are mutating their workers and making them slaves for their company and others. Little does he know, he was also secretly drugged into the mutation process by the owner of WorryFree. 

Code-switching is a term used to describe switching between different uses of language depending on the conversation. In the Black community, we often code-switch to show professionalism (work, job interviews, etc). In the film, Cassius tells his coworker that his friends tell him he “speaks white” anyway and he doesn't understand why he would have to change the tone of his voice to talk to customers at his job. When he finds that inner white voice, however, he finds how successful using the voice can be. As he gets promoted in the company, he finds himself in a predicament where the white people around him encouraged and almost forced him to rap in front of them. Because he’s not a rapper, he ends up freestyling with the n-word and his coworkers repeat it back to him in the lyrics. Though he was visibly uncomfortable, no one seemed to care. Black people often find themselves in situations similar to Cassius. We code-switch in the workplace to appease white people or so that whatever biases or stereotypes they may have about Black people won't apply to us. However, it seems as though we forget that Black is Black no matter how it’s presented. At the end of the day, being forced to rap in front of your coworkers is something every Black person in corporate America has gone through, in one way or another. Being asked to be the voice of all Black people, hearing unwarranted critiques of Kanye, or questioning how our hair grew overnight, are just some of the many ways we’re encouraged to talk about or even prove our Blackness. 

I don't believe Black people or any person of color should have to code-switch, but sometimes it comes as second nature when in a professional place. I do think that code-switching can lead to consequences that no longer benefit us, similar to Cassius. People should accept who we are, naturally in the way we are most comfortable. Black people should feel comfortable being themselves, and America should give us the space to do so.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Janelle Monae: The Visionary

Janelle Monae is an amazing creative. From her acting, writing, singing, rapping, dancing, and producing, she truly is a top-tier artist with unlimited talents. Janelle Monae has such a beautiful way to capture her futuristic mind in her albums, music video production, and content. She presents afro-futurism in a way that we don't typically see from artists today, especially at her caliber and longevity. Her vision of afro-futurism has been broadcasted as her brand since the beginning of her stardom in the early 2000s.

Her first album, “Metropolis” (2007), debuted her afro-futurism vision, especially in the music video for “Many Moons”. The beginning of the music video provides context that there is an annual android auction. In the music video, those being auctioned and performing for the elites at the auction are androids; they are considered the “others” of society. The androids walk the runway as they’re auctioned off to the people viewing in awe. We see a parallel of the androids and Black people with the buying and selling of their bodies throughout history (slavery) and in ways we see today (the prison industrial system). We even see a parallel in the hypersexualization of the androids in her world and people of color in ours. Cindy Mayweather (Janelle Moane’s alter-ego, the android) provides entertainment during the auction by singing, rapping, dancing, and playing the instruments in the band. The use of different technologies (including holograms, androids, dancing, an social structures she sings about and displays) shown throughout the video all show how creatively unique Janelle presents her artistry and represents afro-futurism. The messaging and surrelausim in the lyrics parallel to what we see in the music video and in many others. In her song “Tightrope”, she explains the importance of the concept of dancing equating to freedom for her people, the androids. The palace of the dogs, the name of the asylum in which she is trapped, as well as the mirror-faced figures that haunt the halls represents the oppression and discrimination people that walk on the tightrope face. In the music video, the importance of culture, like dancing, and it’s importance for Black people to obtain our freedom (from whatever social structure you please to think of) through unity and culture. In the music video, she gets in trouble for leading a rebellion through dance by the mirror-faced figures and is exiled to her room. These figures walk through walls and doors and seem to move freely throughout the asylum unlike Monae and others in the asylum. The deeper meaning in the video is the concept of the tightrope rather than the tightrope itself. Balancing between humans and androids or poc and white people or even straight and queer. Janelle Monae tackles white supremacy, assimilation, a revolution from the patriarchy, the male gaze, and homophobia in most, if not all of her music and videos that accompany them.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Devil's Advocate

When we read or watch a story, we usually see it from the protagonists’ perspective. We rarely ever see media based on the villain’s point of view. The only three forms of media I can think of are Maleficent (Disney film on the antagonist that curses Aurora), Wicked (Musical based on Wizard of Oz, Wicked Witch of the West), and Cruella (Disney movie of a Fashion Designer that used real fur in clothing). In class, we read Greedy Choke Puppy and The Lake where both points of view were from the monsters (and main characters) in the short stories.

What’s extremely interesting about both stories, as readers, we’re unaware that we’re reading the stories from the perspective of the monster until the end. In both The Lake and Greedy Choke Puppy, the monsters are presented as young relatable average women. We learn more about their personalities as we continue to read about both Jackie (from Greedy Choke Puppy) and Abbie (from The Lake). Films like Maleficent and Cruella and musicals like Wicked explain the perspectives of the villains of previously released movies (Maleficent - Sleeping Beauty, Cruella - 101 Dalmatians, Wicked - Wizard of Oz), so it’s obvious who the villain is. However, in stories like The Lake and Greedy Choke Puppy, you assume the villain isn’t the main character. It’s assumed that Jackie’s granny is the Soucouyant in the story. She’s the one who sees Lagahoos, duppies, and jumbies, warns Jackie about being out late, and encourages her to enjoy life instead of chasing after romantic love. Spoiler alert! Though Jackie’s granny is a Soucouyant, she’s not the monster the story is based on. Jackie is the one who strips her flesh at night and kills young children (even kills her friend’s 5-day old baby). In The Lake, the lake itself seems like the antagonist. At the beginning of the story, the unspoken rule of not swimming in the lake is expressed by the people that live in the town, and the two young boys that Abbie ends up inviting over to her house. Abbie seems like a nice young teacher that is trying to reinvent her life by moving to a new city. However, she has bad intentions of seducing some of her UNDERAGED students and having them help her build up her new home. As Abbie swims in the lake, her hunger for young boys seems to translate into a hunger for flesh. Changes are made to her body like webbed feet and though she gave up red meat, she starts eating it again… rare. It’s not apparent that Jackie and Abbie are monsters until the very end of both stories when their true identities and urges are revealed. Writing from this perspective adds suspense and plot twists that the readers don't assume, which is always enjoyable as a reader and a sign of great writing from the author. This is one of the many different ways media can be written, and one of my favorites.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Eve's Bayou - Misogyny

There’s no doubt that Eve’s Bayou is a great horror film that I’d recommend anyone to watch. Being that I watched the film in 2022, it’s hard to ignore the blatant misogyny and toxic masculinity the film is based on. Samuel L Jackson’s character, Louis, is one of the main characters and main source of conflict in the film. We see misogyny and toxic masculinity spew out of Louis in every shape and form to every single person he’s around. At the beginning of the film, Eve (Louis’ daughter) catches Louis cheating on her mother by having sexual intercourse with Louis’ bestfirend’s wife. (Crazy right?) This is the first red flag we see from Louis. Cheating on your wife that’s literally next door is such a major disrespectful thing to do. On top of that, when Eve confronts him he lies to her about what he and the woman were doing (even though she saw it with her own eyes). Throughout the film, its mentioned that the whole town knows about Louis cheating on his wife. I mean… how terrible can this man actually be? Well it gets worst. When Roz confronts her husband about the constant cheating, he argues with her. Argues with HER about HIM cheating. He then starts grooming his own daughter, Cisely (Eve’s older sister). He sexually assualts her and trie making her into a replica of her mother.

We also see internalized misogyny in the people around Louis. When Eve approaches Mozelle (her aunt, Louis’ sister) about seeing her father cheat on her mother, Mozelle threatens to KILL Eve. KILL HER. She LITERALLY threatens to KILL her niece if she continues to talk about her father cheating. Why did Mozelle do that? It’s because of her internlized misogyny. She looks up to Louis and seeks validation from him. So, even though the whole town knows of his wrongdoings and betrayal to his wife, she stills doesnt want her niece to acknowledge or talk about to her or others. We see the same thing when Roz talks to Mozelle about the cheating and she dismisses her. Mozelle advises Roz to wait it out. She tells Roz that it’ll get better eventually and to stay by his side and stop complaining. We also see Mozelle’s internalized misogyny by the way she speaks about herself and the death of her husbands. Finally, we see her complacency in Louis’ actions when we find out towards the end of the film that she knew of Cisely’s grooming and assault. She doesnt protect her niece or confront her brothers’ actions to him or Roz because she’s WEAK. She’s more than weak though. She seeks her brother’s validation as the main man in her life (internalized misogyny).

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Tales from MY Hood

Tales from the Hood is a Black horror movie about a mortician who tells stories to drug dealers in his community in an attempt to make them stop. I think the movie could have been executed a bit better, however, the plot is what we see all the time growing up in Black communities.

Growing up in the Caribbean we have something called Anansi stories, which originated in West Africa. Anansi is a spider who was too smart for his own good. Anansi was essentially a con artist and had to face the consequences of his actions in every story. In Elementary school, our teachers would tell us Anansi stories that were very similar to the themes troublemakers were doing in class. (Just for background, 6th grade is still considered elementary school where I'm from, middle school is 7th-8th grade.) In 6th grade, a couple of boys in my class started gambling and hanging out with older drug dealers in our neighborhoods. For a month straight, every other day, we heard an Anansi story where he got into trouble about owing other animals food and ending up having such a huge debt that he had to move but the animals followed him (Anansi apologizes in the end and works off his debts). Looking back, they made sure they told these stories to stress the complications and consequences of gambling and hanging with the wrong crowd.

As we get older, Anansi stories don't work as well, however, we still use folklore. There always seems to be a story of someone who went down the wrong path similar to what someone’s going through. Elders in the community use that folklore to scare kids straight (their kids or others); they try to convince them to turn the other cheek. Tales from the Hood represent this storytelling to save someone in that same way, just instead of oral stories, it's visual.

I do think that folklore and Anansi stories are passed down throughout generations for a myriad of reasons: 1. They're fun to listen to. 2. There’s so much variety and difference in Anansi stories and folklore throughout the Caribbean and West Africa, it’s easily applicable to any situation. 3. They work. Folklore works. Anansi stories work. Folklore and stories tap into empathy and the people listening want to be better than the people that came before them. Also, you don't want to turn into a story yourself.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Voodoo and Hollywood

The Serpent and the Rainbow is a movie produced in 1988 about a white man that visits Haiti in search of Voodoo drugs. I only watched the trailer and that's all I needed to see to recognize the Hollywood trend of depicting Voodoo as an evil/dark magic that possesses people instead of a religious belief like Christianity.

I grew up in the Caribbean, where Voodoo is wildly believed in. So, seeing Voodoo on television ALWAYS portrayed as something evil is extremely disappointing. Now, in the Caribbean, there are people who don't trust Voodoo and even see it as a religious belief that has more negative qualities than positive ones, some based on personal experiences. For example, when my father was a child, he said that he was impacted by Voodoo (though the spell originally wasn't for him, that's another story). He was sick for days and eventually had to go to a hospital. It was so bad that when he looked in the mirror he saw “a monster” and though his siblings recognized him, his mother couldn’t. After being sick for days in the hospital, he was able to only regain his health after a doctor who heard about his case came in and was familiar with Voodoo from his own family. The doctor talked to my grandma and they were able to give my father a tea and he regained his health in a couple of hours. Because of this, my father stays as far away from Voodoo as possible, rightfully so. However, he still understands how powerful the practices and prayers must be if it had that much of an impact on his health.

Though so far this blog has been a whole lot of negative, I genuinely do believe that Voodoo isn't bad especially Hollywood (and this post) has made it seem. Voodoo is very similar to many other religions that involve prayer, rituals, and manifestations. In Christianity, you pray to God and ask for guidance, mercy, or for something material or a feeling. Though there are many different types of Voodoo beliefs (like there are many different forms of Christianity: Catholic, Protestant) the practice is the same. In Voodoo they pray to their ancestors, or souls in the spirit realm asking for guidance, mercy, and for something material or a feeling. It’s also very similar to cultural traditions. For example, in the Mexican culture, they celebrate the Day of the Dead where they set up altars and visit cemeteries to welcome back the spirits of their deceased friends and families. In Voodoo, alters are also set up to contact souls in the spirit realm. There are also success stories in Voodoo. For example, there was a sacrifice made after months (almost a year) of no growth of plants, fruits, or vegetables on a large plot of land. The soil was new, the island had lots of rain and sunlight, and for months nothing was bearing. After the sacrifice, it took two weeks and there were finally sprouts on the land. It was a major success, and the plot still bears a myriad of fruits, vegetables, and fruits to this day.

The reason Voodoo gets such a bad wrap in Hollywood is because of racism. Voodoo originated in West Africa and made its way throughout the Caribbean (you know.. the slave ships), so it's mainly practiced by Black people. Because white people didnt understand (or tried to) the depths of Voodoo and definitely didn't try to compare them to the religions they’re familiar with and practice themselves. Though Love Craft Country is one of the newer shows that depict Voodoo, there are still some negative stereotypes portrayed in the series that could do further harm in the minds of others and in Hollywood. Though now in 2022 we have more black writers and producers, I hope to see more positive depictions of positive Voodoo in Hollywood.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Black people >

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Hmmmm

...

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Retribution: “Get Out” and “Us”

Let's talk about retribution in “Get Out”. At the beginning of the film, Chris is walking around the house with Rose’s dad Dean Armitage. As they’re walking, Dean presents a picture of his father to Chris. He gives the backstory of his father competing in the track and field Olympic games in 1936. However, his father lost to Jesse Owens. Dean talks about how it was such a great accomplishment especially because the win was in front of Hitler. When Chris tries to empathize with him and says that must have been hard on his father, Dean responds by saying something along the lines of, “Yeah, and he almost got over it”. It’s understood at this point in the film, that Dean’s parents have both passed away (however, we know they’re on some Freaky Friday stuff). The “almost got over it” hints at the retribution aspect we see in the film. Dean’s father constructs this plan of kidnapping and (basically) murdering Black people as retribution for losing against a Black man at the Olympics. We see a hint of this when we see Walter running in the middle of the night and constantly training by doing yard work. So essentially, one old white man’s plummeted self-esteem has the same worth of a handful of Black lives. Gotcha. 

Now with “Us”. The huge underlying theme in “Us” is retribution. For clarity, Red is going to be the gal in the red suit that we see in most of the film (the OG Adelaide). Adelaide is the gal we see with her family in most of the film. Red was kidnapped (another theme we see in both films) as a child and replaced in the underground with Adelaide in Santa Cruz. As adults, Adelaide and her family visit her beach house in Santa Cruz and we see Adelaide express a lot of concern and worry about returning to the place that changed her life. This whole time, Red had planned for their return and became the mastermind for the plan of domination; tethered vs untethered. Red plans for the tethered to kill their duplicates that live in the outside real world and semi-succeeds. Red’s personal revenge on Adelaide kidnapping her became the foundation for the tethered’s revolution.

[jazzlynngsunkenplace]

Niggas and the Sunken Place

     Andre is the first Black side character we’re exposed to in the film “Get Out”. We see Andre walking, visibly uncomfortable in a neighborhood. A car drives slowly past him and then quietly makes a U-Turn while playing “Run rabbit, run rabbit”. The song is the first red flag we see in the film. It’s almost warning Andre that he should run as quickly as a rabbit away from the– wait for it– kidnapper who makes him pass out and places him in the trunk of the car. We see Andre once again at the party accompanied by his wife Philomena with a new name of “Logan”. Logan’s verbal exchange is extremely formal and doesn't follow the code of Ebonics, typical to Black Brooklyn natives. Logan also doesn't keep the conversation of being the only two Black people at the party between him and Chris, following the Nigga Code. We also see this in the exchange of Walter, the Field Nigga in the film. 

     Let’s move past the weird encounter of Walter running straight in Chris’ direction and then hitting a hard pivot into the night. While Walter was cutting wood Chris approaches him and his verbiage is the same as Logan’s. As we find out later in the movie, Walter was a boyfriend of Rose who was turned into her grandpa. (Backstory: Grandpa lost the Olympics to track-star Jesse Owens which is why we see Walter running in the middle of the night… he’s still not completely over his loss in the race, which probably inspired this whole sick and twisted shit they have going on but I digress) When speaking to Chris, Walter seems hostile yet happy at the same time (which is what we see in Georgina as well). 

     Back to Logan. The most significant piece of the exchange between Logan and Chris at the party is the first form of physical touch by the two characters. Chris reaches out his hand to dap Logan up and Logan responds by shaking his hand, fist and all. When he walks away from Chris to attend to other party-goers, Chris watches as Logan puts himself on display for white amusement, and is disgustingly in awe. Later in the party, Chris tries to shift the attention from him to Logan when asked about the advantages and disadvantages of the African-American experience. Logan then replies that he, for the most part, has had a great experience as an African-American but includes that he hasn't left the house in a while. He doesn't leave the house for a multitude of reasons. 1. Andre is missing. If he’s seen in public and someone recognizes him, it risks the chances of exposure of their evil Frankenstein surgeries. 2. He is a slave, figuratively but also literally. He says that the chores in the house are his sanctuary. (Like okay, “slavery was a choice” ass nigga) Chris tries to sneak a picture of Logan with his cellphone and Logan freezes, like a deer in headlights. His eyes have a white film over them, and his nose starts bleeding. Logan starts to scream “Get Out” in a vernacular and tone completely opposite of what we’ve seen so far by him, something most similar to Chris. Logan approaches Chris and grabs his shirt by the chest screaming to “Get the fuck outta here man” in an almost desperate attempt to save Chris’ life. Here’s the kicker, they put him in a room with mother dearest to re-hypnotize him and blame the outburst on seizures. And then poof, just like that, Andre turns right back into Logan. Chris confides in Rose that he felt like he knew ANDRE not Logan, but ANDRE who charged at him. (This exchange is all during the slave auction of Chris happening unbeknownst to him). He sends the picture to Rod who confirms that he does know who Andre is, known in their community as “Dre”. 

     Now Chris’ first time in the sunken place feels unrealistic and he’s more scared and anxious than anything. The second time he is sent to the sunken place, he expresses more anger and frustration.  Unlike the other victims before him, Chris escapes the sunken place by PICKING COTTON out of the chair he was CHAINED and SHACKLED to and then killed Rose’s father with a BUCK… do I need to explain the irony?