Black Horror and the Monstrous Fear of Self with Dr. Kinitra D. Brooks

Today's Historic Story: The True Story of Candyman

They say urban legends aren’t real. That they’re only cautionary tales to keep unruly children at bay, but there are elements underlying these stories that are far more terrifying than any monster or ghoul. The biggest horror? How we as Black people have learned to fear ourselves.

We sit down with Dr. Kinitra Brooks to guide this conversation. Beyiond being a horror scholar, she is a horror fan. She’s authored two books: Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror and Sycorax’s Daughters, and is working on her next work about Conjure Women. She is also the Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University.

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Thanks for supporting the work. The Black History Year production team includes: Tareq Alani, Brooke Brown, Shiavon Chapman, Abeni Jones, Briona Lamback, Zain Murdock, Tasha Taylor, and Leslie Taylor-Grover.

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Black History Year’s executive producer is Julian Walker.

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