In her essay "Black Horror Rising," Tananarive Due explores how Black creators have transformed the horror genre by telling stories that reflect their own experiences. She discusses how early horror films often portrayed Black characters in stereotypical or minor roles. However, in recent years, Black filmmakers and writers have started creating horror stories that address real issues like racism, history, and identity. Due highlights how these stories not only entertain but also provide a way to process trauma and imagine new futures. By reclaiming horror, Black artists are turning fear into a tool for empowerment and change.

Due, T. (2019). Black horror rising. Uncanny Magazine, (28). https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/black-horror-rising/ 

In her essay, author and educator Tananarive Due explains how horror can help people—especially Black communities—process trauma and reclaim agency. Inspired by her activist mother and classic horror films, Due grew to see horror not just as entertainment, but as a way to confront real-life fears. She teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA, emphasizing stories where Black characters have power and complexity. Her debut novel The Between uses horror to explore race, identity, and alternate realities. Due believes horror can be a meaningful tool for both storytelling and healing.

Due, T. (n.d.). On horror and the creations that shape us with Tananarive Due. Novel Suspects. Retrieved June 7, 2025, from https://www.novelsuspects.com/author-essay/tananarive-due/

In her blog post, Monica Heiser reflects on bell hooks' book Art on My Mind: Visual Politics, emphasizing how hooks explores the intersection of art, race, and identity. Heiser highlights that hooks encourages readers to view art not just as aesthetic objects but as powerful tools for social change and self-expression. By analyzing works from Black artists and sharing personal experiences, hooks demonstrates how art can challenge dominant narratives and empower marginalized communities. Heiser finds hooks' insights particularly inspiring for artists and educators seeking to engage with art in meaningful, transformative ways.

Heiser, M. (2020, July 22). Art on My Mind: Visual Politics by bell hooks. Monica Heiser. https://monicaheiser.com/2020/07/22/art-on-my-mind/

In Freedom Dreams, historian Robin D. G. Kelley encourages us to think beyond struggle and toward hope. He argues that social movements are not just reactions to oppression—they are born from people’s dreams of a better world. Kelley highlights how Black activists, artists, and thinkers across the 20th century imagined bold new futures using love, imagination, and creativity. He explores how Black radical movements—like Pan-Africanism, Black feminism, and surrealism—have dared to dream of freedom beyond what exists today. Instead of only focusing on what’s wrong with the world, Kelley invites readers to ask: what kind of world do we want to build? 

Kelley, R. D. G. (2002). Freedom dreams: The Black radical imagination. Beacon Press.

In Our Own Voice by Vanessa Jackson shares powerful stories from African-American people who have experienced the mental health system. Through personal interviews and historical examples, the book shows how racism, trauma, and discrimination have shaped how Black people are treated—and often mistreated—in mental health care. Jackson explains how telling their own stories can be a way to heal, resist oppression, and reclaim power. The book encourages readers to understand mental health in context, challenge unfair systems, and honor the strength and survival of Black communities. 

Jackson, V. (2013). In our own voice: African-American stories of oppression, survival and recovery in mental health systems. National Empowerment Center. 

This presentation developed by Cara Campbell and Fairuze Ahmed Ramirez will dive into the haunting world of the film Sinners, by Ryan Coogler's most personal film to date, a supernatural blues horror set in 1932 Mississippi that explores the exploitation of Black creativity through a vampire metaphor. This entirely original screenplay marks Coogler's first departure from existing properties, bringing to life a story that has lived in his soul for years. You will explore how family history, blues music, and themes of cultural ownership intertwine in this groundbreaking film starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers facing supernatural forces in the birthplace of the blues.