What ‘Sinners’ and Chelsea Reject Taught Me About the Power of Black Cultural Memory
Director Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow-era horror-drama and a recent memorial show for a late Brooklyn rapper speak to how we honor legacy.
What is the responsibility of a griot? There’s always been more to the role than just singing songs for an audience. In West African culture, the griot is an orator, a cultural gatekeeper whose talents for song, dance, and storytelling are directly tied to their people’s history and well-being. A griot understands there’s no pain without pleasure, no reward without risk, and sifts through those raw feelings, pulling from the past and the future to make sense of the present. It’s in Gil-Scott Heron exposing a country more invested in space travel than accessible healthcare on “Whitey’s on the Moon,” or in Bbymutha’s triumphant reclaiming of the word “slut” from trifling baby daddies and schoolyard bullies on her 2020 song “Roaches Don’t Die.” The soul is in the details—griots, particularly across the Black diaspora, use lived experience and cultural touchstones to appeal to the spark that keeps the disenfranchised going, even when all hope seems to be lost.
This past weekend, the concept of the griot was on my mind. What should the relationship between a creative and their community be? How do we honor those brave enough to expose the ties that bind and stain our collective cultural consciousness through the power of music?
