However, the story also enjoys itself with lots of action, adventure storylines, steampunk weaponry, monster fights, and more. Furthermore, in less talented hands, this all could come across as didactic and like homework rather than entertainment. Yet the storytelling takes the wheel first and foremost to guide the action, filtered through the Sangerye family’s own drama. The horrific historical events of the “Red Summer” – waves of white supremacist violence and anti-Black riots in some three dozen cities across the USA – and the Tulsa massacre of 1921 spin out into the main action taking place in Harlem, 1924.Īnd the story uses the supernatural to explore the monstrosity of hate by the oppressor, and the burdens of grief and loss for the oppressed. duBois, so much more.Īt the height of the Harlem Renaissance, we meet the Sangerye family, who have dedicated themselves to protecting the world from monsters born of hate and racism. Walker, Brown and Greene poured Black history into this tale that feels a bit like Ghostbusters, Lovecraft Country, the works of Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. Like gumbo, its elements are numerous but can’t quite be measured, and under the right heat for the right amount of time, yields deliciously magical results.Īnd, like gumbo as I know it, steeped in Blackness and the story of America. Walker and Chuck Brownīitter Root is a marvelous gumbo, a wondrous collection and amalgamation of storytelling.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |