larisha stone.
conjure: the docuseries
Earth, Fire, Air, and Water are not just elements, but homes and conduits of the spirits. The river is a throughway where people sing, leave offerings and seek guidance from powerful spirits. The flame can ignite and spark evolutions, warn off enemies, and offer strong retribution. The wind carries sacred and ancestral messages of the past, present, and future to the intuitive listener. The trees and land are ancient friends that sustain and heal our bodies.
Born of a keen awareness of the life-giving and sustaining forces of nature, Conjure originated with esoteric knowledge of healing and medicine that was passed on through initiation and training within families and in oral traditions with extended kin. Although it was African in origin, Conjure would be embedded in the sacred institutions, songs, and performances of black American religion. Practitioners developed rituals of protection and self-defense that were especially needed in the context of chattel slavery in the United States, where violence and mistreatment were perpetuated in a system of unrelenting harm and hostility against black bodies and souls for over two centuries. Healing and well-being would therefore take on a special significance for black people even as the originating African religions would be cast as primitive, superstitious, and demonic by those who would oppress them. Even after emancipation, Hoodoo, Conjure, and Rootwork were marginalized and defamed, and many of the old practices were withdrawn, disguised, or hidden away from public view.
Conjure: The Docuseries uncovers the largely unknown and often misunderstood world of the African American traditions of Conjure, Rootwork, and Hoodoo. The series narrates the untold story of the venerable ancestral traditions of healing in black communities from slavery into the present day, with contemporary herbalists, artists, and activists. Our docuseries aims to illuminate the African American tradition known as Conjure, Rootwork, and Hoodoo, used interchangeably in the film in relation to themes such as healing, arts, community, and resistance. Conjure is an exploration of Black ancestral spirituality with a modern lens that chronicles its re-emergence in the US today, recovering its origins and tracing intergenerational links that have been sustained by community members who are devoted to its preservation.
Conjure has been reclaimed as a vital spiritual practice, not only for healing injured bodies and traumatized minds but for sustaining relationships and restoring intergenerational ties across time and space. Today’s practitioners are working to safeguard and preserve traditions that have been endangered by fear and misrepresentation in popular culture and the media, as well as legislative restrictions and repression. As we traveled across the United States to seek out Conjure practitioners, our team gathered stories of lived experience and community memory that depict the ways that spiritual knowledge, memory, and ritual can heal intergenerational trauma, challenge state-sanctioned assaults, and connect those who are attempting to restore a legacy of personal and community care.
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Episode 1 of Conjure: The Docuseries explores how Black Conjure women use the power of the elements to address challenges including maternal health disparities, connection to the land, and mental health matters. In this episode we meet four Conjure women: Louisiana CNM Charlotte Goudeau, Certified herbalist and midwife-in-training Divine Bailey-Nicholas, herbalist and healer Lucretia Van Dyke, and Artist and Ceramist Nickeyia Johnson. The African American spiritual tradition known as Hoodoo, Conjure, or Rootwork reminds those who seek its mysteries that the earth and her elements have everything needed to sustain life, prosperity, and longevity.
This clip contains two of our four interviewees – Louisiana Certified Nurse Midwife Charlotte Goudeau and Certified herbalist, doula trainer, and midwife-in-training Divine Bailey-Nicholas – discussing the work of Black midwives at a time when they were the primary healthcare providers to their communities and the relevance of their wisdom today. Days before we traveled to Louisiana to film, the state’s GOP senator Bill Cassidy said that the “maternal death rate isn’t as bad if you don’t count Black women” and that the rates are more standard if you “correct for race.” Charlotte Goudeau premiers in this episode to explain why his dangerous stance is exactly why traditional modalities of healing and culturally competent care are so important for Black women giving birth.
Every plant has its own spirit. Divine Bailey-Nicholas shares how Rootwork didn’t always make sense to those who were not familiar with the culture. Principles that were well-known among Black midwives in the 19th and 20th centuries are now being repackaged and sold back to people as original or new ideas. Her work’s focus is on making our traditional remedies and knowledge popular among the descendants of the communities those very midwives cared for from labor and delivery into adulthood.
extended sample.
Growing up, my grandmother’s dresser always had a red oil lamp, a bowl of hot cinnamon candies, and a Bible opened to the twenty-third Psalm with names scribbled on the page. Occasionally she would add a nab of Jack Daniels, or a cigarette, even though she didn’t smoke. Sometimes I would sneak a piece of candy from the bowl. I didn’t know why she kept that dresser until I researched the culture of my captive ancestors, those African people who first graced the shores of Carolina centuries ago. The fire of the candy and my grandmother’s oil lamp, her earthy brown skin, the soft air of her breath as she prayed over me, and the flood of memories, distant and deep like the waters that my ancestors traversed, created a symphony of the elements that connected her to the spiritual world. The dresser was an altar, sacred space for a religion whose name I didn’t know, for a practice that I learned to conjure with earth, fire, air and water to reach into the past and bring the forgotten into the now.
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This documentary presents the African American traditions known as Conjure, Rootwork, and Hoodoo, used interchangeably in the film in relation to themes such as healing, arts, community, and resistance. Conjure is an exploration of Black ancestral spirituality with a modern lens that chronicles its re-emergence in the US today, recovering its origins and tracing intergenerational links that have been sustained by community members who are devoted to its preservation. Each segment will be twenty minutes long, with commentary by scholars, artists, and practitioners that provides in-depth context and analysis. Conjure depicts the ways that spiritual knowledge, memory, and ritual can heal intergenerational traumas, challenge state sanctioned assaults and racial violence, and reconnect those attempting to reconcile their identities. The film will be written, produced, and directed by Larisha J. Stone, an emerging filmmaker, independent researcher, viral content creator, birth doula, and African-derived religion practitioner. Dr. Yvonne Chireau, author of Black Magic: African American Religion and Conjuring Tradition and professor of Religion, serves as the documentary producing consultant. Dr. Elena Guzman, a professor of Africana Studies whose work focuses on representing Black diaspora spirituality in film, serves as the director of photography, editor, and producing consultant. What binds all of us to this project is our location as Black women who are deeply committed to and involved with the religions and cultures of the African diaspora.
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Citation: Stone, Larisha J. “Conjure: The Docuseries." SPIRIT HOUSE: A Crossroads Project. October 2023. Date Accessed. https://www.crossroads-spirithouse.org/stone.
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