Trigger Warning: Brief, non-graphic discussion of themes of grooming, sexual abuse, and intimate partner violence.

Summary:

Mami Melusine discusses Tananarive Due's short story and Joe West's film adaptation "The Lake," about a mysterious woman with a dark past who is drawn to a lake that something also dangerous dwells in and Christine Chen's Erzulie, a film about four friends' encounter with a Black mermaid goddess at a campsite where they find their lives to be in danger.

Notes:

• Though I warn in the beginning of the podcast that my reviews may not be spoiler-free, I did manage to discuss the story and both films without giving away the endings. Feel free to engage without watching the films beforehand.
• At one point I refer to visuals: for those without the video podcast I am referring to the illustrations of Mami Wata as light-skinned and monstrous from the graphic novel, Mami Wata: Beyond Time and Space, linked in citations below.

Texts Cited/Mentioned:

Tananarive Due, "The Lake" also in Tananarive Due, Ghost Summer

Joe West, Tananarive Due, and Stephen Barnes, "The Lake," in Horror Noire

Christine Chen, Erzulie

Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, Ezili's Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders

Rollin Ravel Essango, African Tales, Myths, and Legends: Mami Wata Beyond Time and Space

Gabrielle Tesfaye, The Water Will Carry us Home

Jalondra A. Davis, "Crossing Merfolk Narratives of the Sacred: Nalo Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms and Gabrielle Tesfaye's The Water Will Carry Us Home," and other mermaid research

I debated on whether to cite and link the Vlad Interviews that I referred to in my discussion of sexual abuse in "The Lake." I don't like him and don't want to send people to his platform and the stories themselves are also very disturbing and traumatic. If you would like to verify what I was referring to, the comedians I was referring to who I have seen tell stories of childhood sexual abuse are D.L. Hughley and DeRay Davis and the clips can probably be found on Youtube.

Trigger Warnings:

Gun Violence, Violence against women, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation

Summary:

A reaction to Megan Thee Stallion's new video, Cobra. Discusses the Mami Wata aspects of the imagery as well as my thoughts about Black female performance and the song's themes.

Mentions/Citations:

Megan Thee Stallion, "Cobra"

Trigger warning: some brief mentions of horror scenarios: violent death, body horror, child death, and gore

Summary: In this bonus episode, I review my very busy month of October, talk about some more Black horror films I watched, and describe my trip to DC for another very Black mermaidy art exhibit!

My Mermaid Research:

https://jalondradavis.com/#scholar

Citations and Mentions:

University of California, Santa Cruz, Festival of Monsters

California State University, Los Angeles, Eagle Con

University of California, Riverside and UCR Arts, Spooks: A Black Horror Film Series

Bomani J. Story, Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

J.D. Dillard, Sweetheart

Shannon Scott, “Dark Faeries in Horror Literature and Film” (The presentation about changelings that I was referring to)

Kelly Marcel & Melina Matsoukas, The Changeling

Khadijah Mbowe, "get in loser, we're entering our villain era,"

Ayana V. Jackson, From The Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya @ Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

Afrofuturism Exhibit @ Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Mermaid Che Monique 

Tananarive Due, Ghost Summer

Other Episodes Mentioned:

"Talking Black Horror with Nicole Sconiers," Merwomanist Podcast