Category Archives: Magic
Voodoo Brothers: Africana Religions and the Comics, pt. 2
As some of you know, my current project is a book-length study of Africana religions and comics, where I consider how graphic formats are utilized for representing the spiritual traditions of black people. I keep getting sidetracked, though, because the sources are … Continue reading
Circus Freaks, White Voodoo Women, and the Amazing Afro
In between working on serious stuff that takes up my time, I look at images. Some of these images may seem as though they are not related – but they actually are – like these African circus “freak” posters from the early … Continue reading
Apotheosis of Marie Laveau, Hoodoo-Voodoo-Vodou Icon
I knew that it was time to write this post after everyone in the class I was teaching had seen the third season of the FX series American Horror Story, starring Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau, except me. Most of the … Continue reading
The Buddha in the Botanica
Many years ago I came upon an interesting presence while visiting El Cobre, a village in southeastern Cuba. Translated simply as “Copper,” El Cobre is well known for its 19th century mining concerns, but even more famously, it is the site … Continue reading
A Story of Conjuring, Magic, and a White guy named Chung
This is one of those strange-but-true stories that I find really interesting. As I was browsing for historical information on Hoodoo, I found multiple sources dating back to the 1800s on the practice of magic as a kind of theatrical … Continue reading
