Historicized Traumas

Abstract Nia Da Costa’s Candyman (2021) exemplifies the ways in which Black filmmakers and artists can use the horror genre to explore important questions about global Blackness, such as, What does it mean when trauma moves across Black lived experiences? and What does it mean for film and art to address trauma across the temporal plane? Using Candyman (2021) and enriched by an interview with Trinidadian-born artist and Northwestern University professor Sherwin Ovid, who created six paintings for Nia DaCosta’s film, this chapter illustrates the vital role that visual culture, specifically art, plays in memorializing and (de)constructing Black traumas. Particularly, his work on the film, and beyond, operates in conjunction with DaCosta’s iteration of the Candyman to illustrate the power of Black arts traditions in meditating on and preserving Black trauma born out of racism.