Shadows and Light, Healing Through Horror: Future Directions (Panel 2)

Shadows and Light
Exploring Black Horror and Black Healing Panel Discussion
Healing Through Horror: Future Directions
A forward-looking discussion of the future of Black horror and its role in healing communities. Featuring, Michele Tracy Berger (Doll Seed: Stories), John Jennings (Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaption), Tamika Thompson (Unshod, Cackling, and Naked), and Justin C. Key (The World Wasn’t Ready for You). Moderated by Isis Asare.
A transformative in-person event blending the power of Black horror with cultural exploration and collective healing. Featuring a panel discussion with renowned writers and scholars Michele Tracy Berger (Doll Seed: Stories), John Jennings (Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaption), Tamika Thompson (Unshod, Cackling, and Naked), and Justin C. Key (The World Wasn’t Ready for You). gathering delves into Black horror’s historical contexts and its potential as a tool for healing.
Attendees connected with each other through engaging activities and a community marketplace, all grounded in cultural traditions such as oral storytelling and neo-traditional call-and-response. This event offers an inspiring space for horror enthusiasts and those seeking deeper understanding of the Black Diaspora’s narratives and social justice.
Participant Bios
Michele Tracy Berger is the Eric and Jane Nord Family Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of English. Her short fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in various publications including 100 Word Story, Apex Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, Carolina Woman and Ms. as well as various anthologies. She is the 2019 winner of the Carl Brandon Kindred Award for her story "Doll Seed" published in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. Her short story collection, Doll Seed was published in 2024. Much of her work explores psychological horror, especially through issues of race and gender.
John Jennings is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. He is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of the Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Jennings is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. His current projects include the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), and the Eisner-winning, Bram Stoker Award-winning, New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler's classic dark fantasy novel Kindred. Jennings is also founder and curator of the ABRAMS Megascope line of graphic novels.
Tamika Thompson is a writer, producer and journalist. She is author of Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving Books), which is the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards WINNER for Horror, and which Publishers Weekly calls “powerful,” “unsettling,” and “terrifying,” as well as author of Salamander Justice (Madness Heart Press). She is co-creator of the artist collective POC United and fiction editor for the group’s Foreword INDIES Award-winning anthology, Graffiti. Her work has appeared in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as in Interzone, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Her long fiction tale, "Bridget Has Disappeared," is in translation at Independent Legions’ Italian-language Molotov Magazine, her story, “The Sand Ate Her,” is available in audio format at the Creepy Podcast, and her tale, “The God Bot,” is forthcoming in Penumbric. She has attended the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop and the Community of Writers. She also has producing credits at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, as well as at NBC and ABC News.
Justin C. Key wanted to write for as long as he can remember. He blended his passions for science and writing by penning short stories in middle school and sat down to draw up his first novel while studying Biology at Stanford University. He’s been writing ever since. He is the author of The World Wasn't Ready for You. His short stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Crossed Genres, and KYSO Flash, as well as in the revolutionary children’s iPad application, FarFaria. He held a writing advice blog for several years at Scribophile.com and worked as a professional health blogger and content editor at WellnessFX while applying to medical school. Justin’s medical training richly informs his writing, and the power of story and narrative allows him to connect with patients on a deeper level. Key lives in Los Angeles with his wonderful wife, two sons, and daughter.