Today marks three months since Sinners was released and I, like many others, am still not over it. It is one of those movies that makes you understand the purpose of art and creation. It has reinvigorated my artistic practice and is an integral part of the contemporary Black Renaissance.
Annie: “There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true it can pierce the veil between life and death. Conjuring spirits from the past and the future.”
I was very pleased with the ways Sinners centered Sammie’s worldview as a musician as well as the centrality of music in the Black community. Black people are a rhythmic people. Rhythm in general is our first form of communication; our first exposure to rhythm is through our mother’s heartbeat. Music is our thing. Black music is one of my favorite things on this planet. It will never not astound me how we have carried our rhythms, preserved, and transformed them all this time. I come from people who taught me the importance of our rhythms and the history within them. Sinners did an incredible job of portraying the power of our music and the lives of Black musicians.
I think the beginning and last scene of the movie are the most important parts. Bravo to Ryan Coogler for beginning at the end and ending at the beginning!! My God. A visual representation of the ways life is cyclical and not linear. We begin seeing the ways Sammie is tore up from an unknown event but firmly grasping the neck of his guitar. We are introduced to his dad, the preacher, who is blaming his guitar for the situation he is in (RELATABLE). As the movie goes on, we see what has led to this unfortunate situation. Sammie’s music gives him the ability to conjure spirits of the past and future which attracts blood-hungry vampires who are desperate for Sammie’s soul because they have none. In spite of his near-death experience with vampires, he chooses to continue to play music for the rest of his life. Through this movie, we realize the power our music holds and in the last scene, realize the twisted irony of Sammie learning to play music in the church!
That scene in the juke where spirits from the past, present, and future are all dancing together was the scene of my lifetime. For those who think music is purely for entertainment, think again. And those who think music is solely random notes and improvisation, try picking up an instrument. Music is an art form as well as a mode of communication - a universal language. Good musicians can capture the entire range of human emotion and experience (and to know this range, the study of history is very helpful). Different musical techniques represent different things. For example, if you have a song that is supposed to be sad, it might be played slow (though not always). If you want to scare your audience you might suddenly play a loud note after a period of silence. Music, when played with intention, is a form of communication and consciousness raising. Music is physics in action and engagement with the universe (see: The Jazz of Physics by Stephon Alexander). It can stir souls and provide healing. Specific rhythms let us know and remember who we are. This is also why some people have problems with Black music.
Rhythm is the time between two points. Black rhythms carry macro and microscopic imprints of Black history, what we are capable of, and where we are going. When a male soul singer holds out a falsetto note, we are able to see how much we can endure. Playing in Morehouse’s marching band made me understand this. Throughout high school, I studied mostly in schools that prioritized European musical traditions (with the exception of my beloved ICYOLA), and the songs rarely resonated with me. I never wanted to practice, and I couldn’t articulate it then, but it always felt like they were trying to beat the Blackness out of me (figuratively and musically). It turns out I was right. Joining my HBCU band and playing iconic songs created by Black people such as “Never Too Much” and “Boogie Nights” was a return to myself and my heritage. I loved that we were encouraged to swing our eight notes and play flamboyantly. I loved the funky ways we bent sound and growled into our instruments. I loved how the hot and humid Georgia skies carried our resonance and the ways the rhythms of the drumline seemed to fit perfectly into the crevices of the old red clay brick buildings. Black music is history and arguably the most expressive and contagious music in the world.
Being able to travel and play our music at different HBCUs allowed me to witness firsthand the transformative power of music. I would see people coming to the football games with a heavy spirit from a week of being Black in the South and leave with a renewed pep in their step. Our music reminded them of their strength. It healed wounds they had long buried. It connected us to our history of excellence and the beauty of who we are in spite of the ugly parts of our history. It let the audience know who we are and who the future, us youth, were really about. As Annie said in the beginning of the movie, it can pierce the veil and conjure spirits from the past and future. I would often feel like I was time-traveling when playing in the band. One moment I was in the hot 1930s playing an old school song on a broken horn and in the next I was in the future, beyond the horrible Dump administration and his culture of hate. Sometimes all of this “time-traveling” happened in the course of one song.
I am so glad that I did not allow my white-washed musical training to steal the rhythm my ancestors passed down to me. From the beginning of this movie I immediately resonated with the visual of the bloodied broken guitar handle and Sammie’s limp disheveled appearance. Throughout my time playing music, I have had so many people attempt to chastise me or keep me from playing music how I want to (I’ve had incredible supporters too). Being a Black woman tuba player/musician (and a good one at that) has brought on so many vampires and soul suckers who so badly want my sound but not me. I have been hated, defamed, silenced, and unsupported because I’ve foundationally and intuitively known the importance of my African, Indigenous, and in some cases European musical traditions. One thing about a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, they hate an intelligent and musical woman. Shoutout to Sinners for bringing awareness to and reflecting the central role musicians play not just as background noise, but as keepers of culture and purveyors of the future.
P.S. Shoutout to Delta Slim for serving as a mentor and protector of Sammie. That was a real deep scene when he sacrificed himself for Sammie.