In contrast to mainstream representations of the mermaid as an innocent, hyperfeminine girlculture waif, a hypersexualized, commercialized object, or, more rarely, a tempting, predatory,carnivorous siren, Black mermaid stories, narratives, and performers offer entirely differentdimensions to this fantastical figure that are remarkably consistent across literary, visual, andother popular culture. Building upon Badia Ahad-Legardy’s concept of afro-nostalgia, this presentation will focus on the mermaid as a warrior figure, and the way in which Black storyteller sand creatives center the kinds of histories usually used to exclude blackness from fantasy landscapes—captivity, enslavement, and ongoing racial violence—as actually especially entitling Black communities to mermaid stories.