Episode 5 "The Blues as Necessity: Liberation Dreams, Mortality, and Sinners" Gabrielle Walker ' 28

Gabrielle Walker is a Dartmouth sophomore, a student of government and classics, and a twin. When Smoke and Stack are separated near the end of Sinners, he was crying in the theater. In this episode, he reads the film through James Baldwin — who wrote that singing the blues is not a choice, it's a necessity — and connects the barn-fire dance scene to his own research on what it means to find joy inside a world designed to contain you. One of the most personal conversations in the series, and one of the most illuminating. This episode is hosted by Dr. Brittney Frantece, Thurgood Marshall Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of African and African American Studies, Dartmouth College, and is produced by the Dartmouth Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life in collaboration with the Dartmouth Media Production Group.