Dark Matters

James Weldon Johnson’s lyrics in “The Negro National Anthem” speak of singing a song “full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.” Dark Matters signifies the ways in which this “dark past” can manifest when left unexamined. The generational traumas of slavery metaphorically haunt our nation and create spectres that can only be dealt with by staring them in the eye and naming them. It is this power of the word that gives black people the light to dispel the dark and move into a productive future.

Storytellers Toni Morrison, Malorie Blackman, Tananarive Due, Brandon Massey and Linda Addison are not afraid to play in the dark. These writers’ words exhibit the bravery needed to face the gothic horrors of the collective American history. Primarily speculative cultural narratives that actively engage with negatively affective racialized psychological traumas via the traditions of Gothic tropes, and deal with the complex disruptive tensions between the constructions of memory, history, the present, and the self, could very well be called the ethno gothic. These cultural narratives are generated to cope with the things that we hide away from the world and even from ourselves. With this intention, stories and images can exorcise the spirit of this history, seek the light, and dispel these ancient terrors.