Loved Sinners? Read this book next

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You Have to See This Movie!

If you haven’t yet seen Ryan Coogler’s fifth film, Sinners, then get your life together and go see it! The movie is available on streaming platforms and, in some areas, still in theaters. I recommend seeing the movie in theaters because this film embodies everything that makes movie-going a joy.

This film isn’t a vampire movie, but rather a movie with a fantastic and tragic story that happens to have vampires. The cinematography is incredible, the costumes are immaculate, and the characters are brilliantly conceived and acted by a cast featuring both familiar faces and new ones.

Sinners is especially poignant during a time in the U.S. when the history of Black folks is being erased. We need stories like the one Coogler is telling, vampires notwithstanding, to remind us of how this nation has and continues to function. And beyond simply reading historical facts, we need to feel these stories so that we can connect to and hopefully manifest the dreams and desires of folks who died to make this world a better place.

Oh, and did I mention the music? The music is incredible!

Understanding The Blues.

I’m not a music buff of any genre, though I’m a fanboy of folks who are. I would love to be the type of person who has an extensive and eclectic vinyl collection of popular and lesser-known artists, but that’s just not how I’m built.

I have memories of my extended family and parents listening to The Blues, but it was never something I was formally schooled on. I know the names Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy, but can’t name their signature albums or talk about how their art is in conversation with each other and others (Buddy Guy is in Sinners, by the way).

Like so much that Black folks do, the Blues is so much more than music, however. I was always aware of the depth of Black culture, but that awareness came into focus when I started reading scholars of Blackness who put the complexity of Black culture in context. Hip Hop primed me for this learning, and then folks like Clyde Woods, the author of the book I want to talk about in this week’s newsletter, blew the doors off of my consciousness.

Clyde Woods is unfortunately no longer living, but his two most popular books are a gift to humanity that’s hard to overstate. I was introduced to Dr. Woods’ work through Black scholars in geography, namely Drs. Priscilla McCutcheon and LaToya Eaves. Both are professors of geography at the University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee, respectively, and count Clyde Woods among the most influential scholars of their careers.

I read Dr. Woods’ second book, Development Drowned and Reborn, at Dr. Eaves’ recommendation, and I was forever changed. I had never read a book about the history of a place as comprehensive as this work. New Orleans and Louisiana, as a region, make so much sense in ways that encompass and intersect politics, economics, sociology, ecology, and the long and intertwined history of diverse people in a place over hundreds of years.

Development Arrested is a book of the same style, set in the Mississippi Delta. Even without Sinners existing, this book is a must-read.

Why You Should Read Development Arrested

There’s a scene in Sinners where Delroy Lindo’s character is explaining the deeper meaning of The Blues, its origin, and its power. There’s also another scene in the film that beautifully illustrates the transcendental nature of music. What those scenes do for the film in highlighting the depth of Black culture, Clyde Woods’ Development Arrested fleshes out that depth in such satisfying detail.

The Blues isn’t just music, but an entire epistemology that manifests in multiple expressions, the most popular of which is music. Dr. Woords coins the term "Blues Epistemology" in this book, which gives life, meaning, and clarity to what Black folks have been doing with this art form, philosophy, and worldview for centuries on this continent.

One of Development Arrested’s greatest gifts is the decoding of racial capitalism and white supremacy. I’ve stated this many times in my content that one of, if not the biggest, contributors to persistent racism in this country is the ignorance of whiteness that whiteness creates among those who are white. It is tough for individuals who benefit from a system to accept the inherent unfairness of that system, because acknowledging it undermines their sense of self.

Deconstructing whiteness is essential work, and Clyde Woods ’ book provides multiple starting points for understanding the structures of racism in the U.S. But understanding these structures isn’t just necessary for white folks, it’s essential for those oppressed by these systems and anyone who wants to live in a world that is resistant to these systems governing how we might live.

I’ve learned so much about how power is conceived and executed from this book, and I’d like to think that if more people read work like this, we’d be better equipped to construct social relations and societies anchored in cooperative power rather than power over.

And for those who love learning history, this book is full of facts that bring clarity to a region that many people often dismiss as inherently and hopelessly dysfunctional. Outside of the area, most Americans have little interest in visiting Mississippi, let alone living there. I know I didn’t, and not just because of the heat and humidity.

You can’t tell the story of America, the origins of so much we call American culture, cuisine, and power, without understanding this region. The Mississippi Delta needs some respect for her name, and Development Arrested does that and then some.

SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU’VE NOT SEEN SINNERS YET

SERIOUSLY, THIS NEXT SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS

Sinners was a profoundly emotional experience for me because the lives of the characters in the film felt so personally familiar. Although my grandparents were from a bit farther east of Clarksdale, MS, they would have been the same age as Sammy and Pearline in 1932, when the movie takes place. My maternal grandmother would have been 20 years old then, and although she was never someone who struck me as going to a juke joint, her younger sister, my Aunt Newt, was probably well-known at juke joints in Hachechubby, AL, where they grew up.

My paternal grandmother ran a social club after my grandfather, her husband, was murdered by a white man. So you know, I had all the feelings when Smoke faced off against the Klan the morning after their grand opening. Remmick’s argument about the power he was offering to fundamentally turn the tables on the oppressive forces all Black folks and people of color were facing, IF they survived the night, was, I’m not going to lie, compelling as I imagined myself one of the few remaining un-turned humans.

What would it mean to my people to have the power to wipe out their oppressors? Would it be worth the sacrifice of humanity? One life for thousands? I’d at least have to think about it, as Smoke did before the others convinced him otherwise.

I just remember thinking, as Smoke tried to roll a cigarette after he sent Sammy on his way, “Damn! This man just beat a hoared of vampires and he STILL has to deal with those fucking crackers coming to kill him and everyone he holds dear!”

Talk about having to work twice as hard for half as much.

The Wild Kitchen and the Mississippi Delta

My life is centered around relations with the natural world. My ancestors paved the way for me in the Deep South and instilled traditions that I love to uncover in movies like Sinners and books like Development Arrested. Both works are in beautiful conversation with each other, though unknowingly, as I’ve not heard Coogler or the cast mention Clyde Woods ’ work in interviews.

Through the Wild Kitchen, I’m trying to reconnect with the traditions that shaped my existence, the food and way of being that sustained and still nourish Black folks and others, beyond merely filling our bellies.

We (Black folks) have always been here and always led the way in making a home on this new (to us) land. We must all understand this history and our contributions, because we cannot hope to build a future that can sustain us and heal strained relations without the wisdom, creativity, and magic of the Blues.

CONSIDER THIS

Buy and read the book!

I mean, what more do I need to say, right?

NEW ON YOUTUBE!

Mobile Fishing Adventure

If you haven’t watched this episode, or even if you have, take another look within the context of this week’s post. I think you’ll find something new to connect with and understand about a region that doesn’t get enough recognition and respect.

Thanks for reading!

-Jonathan