#griot

[fattributes]

Haitian Griot

[teenagecriminalmastermind]

(back on my sinners soapbox for more sinnersposting babeyy)

sinners would make a phenomenal trilogy - but not in the way you think.

so the opening monologue has annie talk about three groups of folk singers who can pierce the veil between the living and the dead, right?

the griot (west african),

the filidh (irish),

and the fire keepers (native american).

in sinners, we got a movie about the griot: sammie, and i think there are two equally compelling stories out there to tell with each of the remaining groups.

personally, i would love it if they did an irish folk horror movie about the filidh, potentially with ruari o'connor (orpheus, "sandman") or donal finn (orpheus, "hadestown") and tom glynn carney (aegon ii targaryen, “house of the dragon”) as a pair of brothers faced with a similar threat like remmick, touching upon the divide between the native irish identity and that of the colonised/displaced irish community.

and lastly - but certainly not the least - one about the fire keepers, with alaqua cox (maya lopez, "echo") as a deaf fire keeper and anna lambe (kayla prior, "true detective: night country”) as her skeptical sister, which could explore the tradition of oral history amongst indigenous tribes, the effects of genocidal colonialism, and how music can truly pierce barriers regardless of disability.

(ryan coogler hit me up i wanna help make these SO BAD)

[akm87]

[uzumaki-rebellion]

Sammie choosing to become a Griot with Blues music like Delta Slim still makes me smile. The impact of Delroy Lindo's character when dealing with lineage and protecting our culture can't be slept on in "Sinners." This framing when I saw it in the theater, (especially in IMAX) made me feel like Delta Slim in that moment is the past, Sammie is the present, and we the audience who are basically standing in front of Sammie watching him, are the future he's playing for and when the surreal montage hits, we're all there together in the ancestral timeline. At any given moment as Black people, we carry the past/present/future in us and it's lovely to be reminded of this in cinema at this level.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

PDF Link on a curriculum for Yale on West African Storytelling

This is a direct download of a PDF so be aware of that before clicking: https://teachers.yale.edu/download/units/09_01_08.pdf

This is a class proposal by someone else on a class on griot, but also gives history, background and context on griot and griotte. I thought people might be interested in reading it. Remember, the more you read things like this, the more that Joseph Campbell gets upset in his grave that you are actually celebrating own voices and learning that not everyone in the tropics are cannibals. (I have a whole post on the racist beliefs of Campbell) I would absolutely LOVE if all regions of the world could teach this sort of thing too. We need to legitimize more than the 3-act story in the public mindset.

Plus, as a personal aside, oral storytelling is a skill and one that should be celebrated. Watching an oral storyteller do their thing is like magic and almost every culture I know has people who do it. And since the imperialists and so on, came in, often one of the first things they do is to try to kill the oral storytellers. But I think we should celebrate them. There's some places trying to revive them as well, like in Ireland, Scotland, England, Zimbabwe, Korea, and China. So, so cool.

[movietimegirl]

AI Squad of Marvel

[afrotumble]

Why is a Griot so Important in the Black Community?

[marvelwritingmadness]

What am I thinking about? You Didn't ask but I'm going to tell you.

Griot meeting N.A.T.A.L.I.E.

I feel like it would be hilarious.

She would sit there roasting him and he would literally be like

I Don't have time to babysit a child. I have work to do.

He's a little envious that she gets to "walk around" though

And if they do find a way to integrate systems even temporarily, the arguments that would ensue would probably be hilarious but that could be problematic.