Graveyard Shift Sisters

Adulting is be difficult. But add discovering your history through inner ancestral power with Salem descendants hot on your tail as a black milennial woman who cannot make bills, dating whomps, and burnout magically disappear... you've got Juju.

Review byCarolyn Mauricette(@vfdpixie)


Controlla: The First Step to Finding Power

When we left the three women in the first episode, Ally (Cydni Jenkins), Gigi (Nedge Victome) and Yaya (Cassandra Borgella) have met Adaoma (Diedra McDowell), a powerful witch who has sought them out because they have a destiny with magic they must fulfill. In the second episode, they discuss what they’ve just experienced after their startling meeting with Adaoma, and debate whether witchcraft and what they’ve seen, is real. Gigi and Yaya think Ally has the gift and realize that they all may have a blood connection in their Caribbean heritage to witchcraft. Ally becomes the focus as Yaya wants her to open up to the idea that they may have powers. Ally has no …

Adulting is be difficult. But add discovering your history through inner ancestral power with Salem descendants hot on your tail as a black milennial woman who cannot make bills, dating whomps, and burnout magically disappear... you've got Juju.

Review by Carolyn Mauricette (@vfdpixie)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Juju as “1: a fetish, charm, or amulet of West African peoples; 2: the magic attributed to or associated with jujus.” So, a charm or amulet can be infused with energy and is worn for protection or to relay a curse, depending on the intent. While this definition gives a broad view of what Juju is, it doesn’t give it the life it deserves, or the proper representation. If it appears in popular culture, it’s probably through a white-washed version of this ancient African practice; snippets shown in films that don’t really take into account the origins of this type of magic. And when you don’t see something properly done, sometimes the best remedy is to do it yours…

The Netflix series Stranger Things received immediate points for its nostaglic accuracy. Everything eighties that is fantasy, science fiction, and horror spiraling kids into a web of government conspiracies and multiple dimensions with demogorgons, became an inevitable profit flood for the streaming services' core demographic who was that age at that time. As exciting as it has been seeing The Goonies/Alien/E.T. hybrid homage get a polish, Stranger Things also gets so right what was so wrong about this period; tokenism.

"Horror has always been used to illuminate cultural anxieties and gives a voice to our collective fears. So, what to make of the gothic in America, a place which by the very nature of its founding is predisposed to a culture of anxiety? The dread knowing the enemy at the gate is understandable, but in America the enemy has already passed through it, and has been brought inside. The call is coming from inside the house."
-words by Leila Taylor