i need kerosene

I haven’t seen many people talk about the Ring Shout in Sinners so I wanna bring up a few points. Ring Shouts , or Plantation Shouts (sidenote: I grew up hearing it called Cake Walk Shout [ side note to the side note: cake walk is also an African American Carnival Game and also a style of dance that mocked white people “fancy dancing” back in the day]). The ring shout is an affirmation of black life, a declaration of the sanctity of it. I’ve read that in days of share croppers and plantation workers (slaves) we used to bless ourselves, our work , and our land.

“You got a right to the Tree of Life.”

I was raised with a song similar but in the early 2000’s in the region of the south I grew up in our cry had/has morphed into “You got a right to stay alive.” This change is likely due to the prevalence and impacts of police brutality on our men, women and children. Our realities have changed yet our need to affirm to ourselves that our lives matter have not.

Here’s where Sinner comes in. When they are outside of the Juke Joint the fledgling vampires and Remmick were doing a Ring Shout. Remmick imbued it with some of his Irish culture (which was not uncommon at the time black and immigrant and native traditions were in constant conversation with each other) but it was an AA Ring Shout all the same. Like I said multiple times before this Ring Shout was an Affirmation of Life and all of them motherfuckers was dead, ironic lol. Not only were they dead but their “right to the tree of life” (joining the ancestors and being venerated) and their “right to stay alive” was cruelly and brutally stolen from them.

There’s also this comparison of the vampires being culty that struck me as odd. I know it was one of their tactics to be let in/ to get Sammi but why this specifically. I consume a lot of vampire media and the way Remmick and Cornbread and them were trying to reel the humans in with the sixties hippy ‘love will heal us all’ is so unique to the vampire genre. I at least haven’t seen that before. The temptation is always immortality, strength, power yada yada ya. I’ve done a Cake Walk Shout before and it is an overwhelmingly lovely experience, and you do feel love all around you but it’s not cult-y like that. Lmao I am rambling but it definitely means something. I just don’t know what yet.

Some one smarter than me could probably make some deeper points (please do!) but I thought this was all worthy of noting.

Additional Information 🤎

it was serious, but also it was also fun. we can always have fun. i really love my people. 🥺♥️✨

• those of us that attend church still shout just not in a circle 🤍

indian residential school survivors society (BC)

toronto indigenous harm reduction (ON)

native women's resource centre of toronto (ON)

water first (nationwide)

indspire (nationwide)

miskanawah (AB)

ma mawi wi chi itata centre (MB)

manitoba indigenous cultural education centre (MB)

native women's shelter of montreal (QC)

native friendship centre of montreal (QC)

first light (NL)

I show up and am given a list of cognitively engaging but achievable tasks

I complete the list

Nadia Lee Cohen

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