Black Horror Beyond the White Gaze: A Conversation

Content/Trigger Warnings: This interview includes discussions of homophobia, mental health, racism, sexual assault, and transphobia. This conversation was edited for length and style.

Dani Bethea

(she/they/them): Welcome everyone and thank you to the editors of Studies in the Fantastic. My name is Dani Bethea, and I am so delighted to interview an amazing individual today. Monika Estrella Negra is the Editor in Chief of cinéSPEAK, the Co-founder of Audre's Revenge Film Collective, and the Co-editor of Decoded Pride…And I cannot wait to talk about all things horror and film, and Black media with her. So without further ado: welcome aboard, Monika.

Monika Negra

(she/her): Thanks for having me, Dani. I'm super excited to have this discussion with you.

DB:

So, all right, what is the latest horror(s) that you've delved into lately? Whether it be books, TV, film, etc.?

MN:

Oh, man, I like to watch so much content on a daily basis and also read a bunch of things. But moreso what stuck out to me recently, and what has been in my brain—and I'm still trying to process it—is Nia DaCosta's Candyman (2021). Just because, I was waiting for so long to see that movie, and then COVID happened. And then it was just like bleh!…It was going to be released on my birthday in 2020. And I made plans this entire time…like I'm going to do a Candyman birthday party! And then we're going to go see the new Candyman! And it was going to be amazing, but at least I was able to [finally] rent it, just because I wasn't comfortable going to a theater to go experience it, although I wish that I had because it's such a beautifully shot movie. So yeah, that has been a primary film that has stuck out in my brain, mostly because of the narrative surrounding Black vengeance.

Figure 1.

Photo from They Will Know You By Your Fruit by director Monika Estrella Negra, photo by Valérie Bah, with permission.

And I think that with Audre's Revenge Film, that's always been my focal point. It's just talking about what does Black vengeance look like, particularly amongst Black marginalized people within our own communities, and that includes queer and Trans Black folks and Black women. And I think that Candyman definitely upped the ante on what is possible in the realm of imagination for Black vengeance. And those are the narratives that I like…truly, truly, truly. I was just obsessed with it just because I feel like it's still a very touchy subject. As far as Black people being like the victors in a micro-aggressive, passive-aggressive White supremacist society. And there's …so much animosity towards any hint… or desire for a Black person to actively destroy what slowly destroys them.

And I thought it was just perfect, even though Nia [DaCosta] definitely faced a lot of criticism from executives who were investors in the film, about what could go in the movie and what couldn't. And that was particularly frustrating because also as an independent filmmaker—and by choice an independent filmmaker—I think that when there is some type of weird control, especially from the White gaze over our creative properties, we really miss a mark on what we were truly trying to convey to audiences that inevitably see our work. So yeah, I think that's the major one that's been stuck in my brain lately.

[…]

[Latanya McQueen's] When the Reckoning Comes (2021),¹ is such a beautifully written novel. I love Southern Gothic-esque stories, but also to pick a plantation space….and I know that was a trend for a second for White people hosting these very lavish weddings at oldold plantation houses. And I thought that Latanya McQueen's book [also] had a really interesting take on ancestral vengeance, but also ancestral care...