In a now-iconic scene from the supernatural vampire thriller Sinners, a blues singer in a 1930s Mississippi juke joint makes “music so true it can pierce the veil between life and death”—bending time to conjure African ancestors, psychedelic guitar soloists, 80s-style DJs, and 21st-century twerkers and prima ballerinas to jump, twist, and shout along with the local Black community as they set the proverbial rafters on fire.
It’s a visually and sonically rich moment that exemplifies why Ryan Coogler’s 2025 Oscar-winning horror film resonates far beyond its box-office and critical success, inspiring scholars, creators, and movie-buffs alike.
The Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life has recently released a 10-episode video podcast series to explore the impact of Sinners, hosted by 2024-2026 Thurgood Marshall Postdoctoral Fellow Brittney Frantece and co-produced by Dartmouth’s Media Production Group.
The podcast is a continuation of IBICL’s Celebration of Sinners, a weekend-long event in April that included a screening; a performance by Steven L. Johnson, grandson of blues legend Robert Johnson; three commissioned dances by Eden Brooklyn Dance Theater choreographed to the Sinners soundtrack; and a panel discussion with faculty, invited film studies experts, and Sinners actor Wunmi Mosaku, who earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the hoodoo healer, Annie.
The film “is such an immersive experience that it felt like something the institute should celebrate and revisit,” says IBICL Director Kimberly Juanita Brown, a professor of English and creative writing, who says she was “immediately taken by the film’s subtlety, its beauty and intensity, and its testament to craft. It’s a remarkable achievement, and should be continually explored by scholars, artists, and the public.”
Sinners was nominated for 16 Oscars—the most ever received by a single film—and won four, including for cinematography, original score, original screenplay, and best actor for Michael B. Jordan in his dual role as the twins Smoke and Stack, war veterans and gangsters who return to their Mississippi home to start a juke joint.
“In the movie, they wanted a juke joint as a place for the people to just enjoy themselves and be engulfed in music, and I believe our event was able to do the same for everyone involved,” says IBICL Assistant Director Jénee Potts, who as a twin herself says she especially enjoyed the film’s representation of the brothers’ relationship.
The podcast, Brown says, aims to keep the immersive experience going.
Using the film as a starting point, each episode features an intimate conversation with scholars and Dartmouth students exploring the legacy of slavery, the history of the blues, the tradition of horror in Black film and storytelling, theories of masculinity and identity, the African roots of hoodoo religious practices, and much more.
“The podcast provided space for a more scholarly and contemplative engagement with the film,” says IBICL Associate Director Christopher Chambers, who appears in episode 4. “It allowed us to explore the work’s themes, historical context, artistic influences, aesthetic innovations, and cultural significance across multiple disciplines, creating opportunities for deeper reflection.”
In episode 5, Gabrielle Walker ’28, a classics and government major with a minor in African and African American studies, describes the role of the film’s soundtrack—including in that famous juke joint scene.
“It really highlighted how music and enjoyment can be a tool for liberation,” Walker says. “It reminded me of Alice Walker’s line, ‘Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is the proof.’ And that’s something that I found really relieving, especially in a time where tensions are really high. I think that people sometimes forget that just finding a little joy in things can be a powerful resistance.”
Chambers says the purpose of the podcast is to “encourage viewers to engage with the film not simply as a form of entertainment, but as a powerful cultural text.”
“Sinners is an especially rich subject for this kind of exploration,” Chambers says. “Critics have described the film as genre-defying, bringing together elements of horror, historical drama, romance, music, folklore, and Black cinema into a story that wrestles with questions of culture, survival, faith, memory, and freedom. Ultimately, our goal is to create a space for sustained, interdisciplinary conversation about the film’s artistic, historical, and cultural significance.”
About the institute
Brown describes IBICL as a “creative collective” whose mission is to bring together networks of scholars, artists, and others from the global Black diaspora to “advance the scholarly, cultural, and creative expression of the Black community at Dartmouth and beyond.”
Since its launch in 2023, the institute has sponsored a variety of events, including an annual speaker series, and provides research grants to Dartmouth faculty and students. In 2024, IBICL celebrated what would have been James Baldwin’s 100th birthday with One Hundred Days of Baldwin, which featured a series of video tributes to the acclaimed author and civil rights activist and culminated in a live event on campus.
“One of the strengths of IBICL is that we specialize in scholarship around the arts,” says Brown. “The Sinners celebration and podcast further highlights the work we are interested in and marks the institute as a place where artistic work is taken seriously.”
In winter and spring 2027, IBICL is collaborating with the Literary Arts Bridge to host a visiting fellow in the creative arts envisioned as a residency to support “a midcareer writer whose work engages Black intellectual, cultural, and creative life.”
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