‘get out’ inspired a new ucla course on racism & black horror aesthetic

My Soul To Keep filmmaker and professor Tananarive Due, who for several years has taught a course on Afrofuturism at UCLA is now teaching a course that explores ‘The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival, and Black Horror Aesthetic.’ A self-described “horror head”, seeing Jordan Peele’s achievements with his debut feature Get Out prompted even greater interest in exploring the black horror films as the cannon is expanding in real time.

“This amazing renaissance we’re seeing right now of black speculative fiction and literature is really starting to bleed over—no pun intended—into film and television. I mean, I can list so many writers who have active TV development right now. Nnendi Okorafor has Who Fears Death at HBO. N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season at TNT. Victor LaValle with The Ballad of Black Tom at AMC. Clearly this is the moment, right?” she told io9 in a recent interview.

“Between Get Out and Black Panther and A Wrinkle in Time coming out, with Ava [DuVernay] directing a multiracial cast… there’s just never been a time like this. For artists and consumers of black, speculative art.”