Check out Capital B’s Beyond ‘Sinners’: The Stories of Clarksdale, Mississippi, a yearlong project highlighting Black residents reclaiming power and ownership in an area where Blues tourism and development have long excluded them.
Clarksdale, Mississippi, resident Chandra Williams is ecstatic that Sinners won big at the Academy Awards on Sunday. The film had a record-breaking 16 nominations, and won four major awards, making history in one category.
But the film is bigger than the Oscars, said Williams, executive director of the Crossroads Cultural Arts Center in Clarksdale. It is healing “our broken memory,” she said, and reconnecting us to our African history that was lost during slavery.
“If blues is the key to our history before slavery, Sinners just put the key in the lock and turned it,” Williams said. “It has opened a door to remembering who we really are.”
Sinners is a horror film that follows twin brothers who open a juke joint in the 1930s and confront a supernatural threat. The box office hit is set in 1930s Clarksdale, which is known as the birthplace of the blues. The film has revived some residents’ hopes that the majority-Black city of 13,000 residents can regain some of its historic luster as a cultural hub of Black music and history. Some imagine a renaissance in filmmaking and arts in Mississippi.
Williams said of the door that she believes Sinners has opened for them: “Now we must walk through that door towards our greater healing and liberation.”
She learned the term “broken memory” from Guelel Kumba, a Fulani griot and musician, who taught her that African Americans carry broken memories when they practice the traditions of their ancestors — like the origins of blues music, foodways, and rhythm in Africa to its connection in America — without knowing its function or purpose.
“The domination of blues scholarship by the majority can unfortunately leave Black people alienated from our own ancestral art form. As a Black production, Sinners invites us back ‘into the arms of our own gifts,’” Williams said.
Last year, two Clarksdale residents — Jaleesa Collins and Dave Houston — floated an idea on Facebook to organize a screening of Sinners in Clarksdale, which has no movie theater. Clarksdale organizer Tyler Yarbrough, inspired by the idea, penned an open letter to director Ryan Coogler, Warner Bros., and the cast and crew to visit Clarksdale, meet its people, and also host public screenings of the movie, which was actually filmed in Louisiana. Many residents, including Yarbrough, had to travel at least 80 miles to see a film.
“There needs to be a coming home to these Black creators who are making these million-dollar films and being connected with our folks on the ground,” Yarbrough previously told Capital B.
Capital B reported on the community’s activism. The organizers were able to arrange a three-day event of screenings, panel discussions, and a special Q&A with Coogler, actor Miles Caton, composer Ludwig Göransson, producer Sev Ohanian, and a host of blues musicians that contributed to the film’s soundtrack.
Williams and other Mississippians hope the film leads more people to support and visit Clarksdale, and delve deeper and reconnect with the city’s oral and written history.
Nina Parikh, director of Film Mississippi, said she hopes others get inspired to create the stories they want to see. The agency provides filmmakers with resources and incentives to help promote and make their films.
Parikh told Capital B that she hopes “storytellers of all backgrounds in our state will get a boost of confidence to write what they know, their truths, and to celebrate their heritage and culture through their work.” She added: “And if monsters or fairies or talking animals help tell that story, use that creative tool as Sinners used vampires as a vehicle. Then let’s make that movie in Mississippi!”
One challenge for local youth is low levels of literacy, said Raquel Wells Williams, a longtime educator in Clarksdale schools. She has created spaces to encourage storytelling and inspire students to enter the writing competition during the city’s annual Juke Joint Festival. While some have taken advantage of it, it isn’t as cool for others to “join a book club,” she said.
“They’re reluctant to write,” she said. “I tell them, ‘Get out these cellphones.’ It’s more to life than a cellphone, but when we start talking about Sinners, they can really go with the conversation.” She hopes Coogler’s turn from college athlete to screenwriter can inspire more conversations about the importance of writing.
Coogler, who also wrote the film, became the second Black person to win Best Original Screenplay. Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography, making her the first woman and Black person to win the honor. Michael B. Jordan earned Best Actor for his role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack. And Goransson took home the award for Best Original Score.
“I’m happy about it because the movie is so powerful, and the presence of Sinners at the Oscars brought a level of celebration and energy,” Williams said.