Busy busy week/end... Altared Roots will be out in full effect this weekend, as we join in on the Art Walk/Art Attack and Mothers Day shenanigans! Thursday May 9th is the opening of "Flower Power: Plant Stories from the Diasporas" at @vermillionseattle from 5p-9p Friday and Sunday May 10th& 12th I'll be offering bone readings and a short presentation on altar-building for the Grand Opening of @crystal.lounge.seattle, 5:30p-9p Saturday and Sunday May 11th & 12th I'll be selling herbal remedies and spiritual supplies at the South Park Retail Crawl & Art Market hosted by @cultivatesouthpark at @southparkhall, 11a-4p Saturday May 11th I'll be selling herbal remedies and spiritual supplies at Art Attack!, the Georgetown Art Walk at @equinoxstudiosseattle, 6p-9p I'll sleep next week... 🤣😅 Come join me at any/all of these fantastic events! Spend some time with artists, creators, and spiritualists; enjoy the festive atmosphere; and get the mother(s) in your life something wonderful! #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #Blackherbalist #queerdoula #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #Ancestralwisdom #heritagecrafts #remembrance #thikr #plantmedicine #fiberart #mmanwu
Works in progress. I've been busy- one part AuDHD hyperfixation, one part grief processing- getting things going in the studio; on top of events, classes, readings, consultations... So busy, in fact, I've forgotten to post the pics I've been taking! 🤦🏾 1-2. Indigo dyeing for projects TBA (sneak preview at the Flower Power show/exhibit at @vermillionseattle 3-8. Prepping herbal goodies for market, available at the South Park Art Market this weekend @southparkhall 9. Plaster mask forms for projects TBA (also a sneak preview at Flower Power) 10. Rose petal clay for beads (prototypes for forthcoming work Not pictured? Lessons in henna preparation, design, and application from @funwithhenna; pic in stories, and more to come with practice. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsConjure #plantmedicine #heritagecrafts #queerherbalist #naturaldye #indigo #flowerpetalbeads #imanartistandimsensitiveaboutmyshit
Can't wait to see you all THIS THURSDAY for the opening of "Flower Power: Plant Stories from the Diasporas"! I'm humbled to be in the company of such amazing artists. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #artwalk #WorksInProgress #FlowerPower ~~~ Reposted from @herbanhealing Please join us for the opening of Flower Power: Plant Stories from the Diasporas, this Thursday May 9 at @vermillionseattle from 5-9pm, during the Capitol Hill art walk! This collective of multidisciplinary artists with practices deeply rooted in nature and the plant world that has held down our Black, brown, indigenous and POGM communities since time immemorial, especially through colonization, will be honoring our plantcestors via a myriad of mediums and offerings. If you’re unable to make it to the opening the exhibit will be up all month, so come through! 🌻🌹🌸🪷🌺🌼 Artists pages: @cmehitt @herbanhealing @entangledoceans @altared.roots @lilbeefybuns @heartlesstwyla @featherflight55 @japeramakesthings @drink_science @anticolonialauntie @joulesea
WHO AM I?!?!?! not Petey Pablo, that's for sure! 🤣 I am a multi-hyphenate creative, called to practice and promote Ancestral memory & heritage practices. × I am a full-spectrum doula helping people and families through fertility/abortion, pregnancy, postpartum, puberty/transition, menopause, and death/grief. × I am a Tidewater conjure providing divination, rootwork consultations, spiritual tools & charms, home blessings, consecration ceremonies, altar-building, and mentorship. × I am a community herbalist offering herbal consultations, plant-based remedies, and workshops. × I am a student, a researcher, a teacher, a gardener, a dancer, a forager, an artist, a musician, a storyteller, a prayer warrior, a child of my Mothers... Central to my vision is amplifying the voices and experiences of the most marginalized folx in society, reflecting my African and Indigenous heritage as well as my queer identity. I hope to integrate the parts of the 7-pointed star: the World Above, the World Beneath, the World Around Us, and the World Within. Wanna work with me? Check the link, send a DM, meet me at an event... I'm truly here to help. #AltaredRootsDoula #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot
Today is the LAST DAY to get tickets for tomorrow's panel discussion. This field of brilliant, talented workers is coming with a wealth of knowledge, and abundance of skill, and a deep passion and commitment to our People. @mmmmyesshop, @adiajamille, @soulthingsbk, Ada Lolo Dixon, and @clarenceamosjackson will join me under the auspices of @northstarhoodoos to bring forward this vital and dynamic conversation. Adornment as protection, as petition, as sign and signal, as mark of authority or seeking... Issa whole lot! Come* sit with us as we talk about the power and potential of a Hoodoo aesthetic. April 27th 1pm ET/10am PT** Register by midnight: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/for-the-culture-sacred-adornment-regalia-in-hoodoo-tickets-878124974437 *this is a BUFU event; govern yourselves accordingly **the discussion will be recorded, so please sign up and watch the replay if you can't make it live #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #HoodooAesthetics #BlackSemiotics #signifying #theArtofCool #flashofthespirit #blingbling #MakeHoodooBlackAgain #KeepConjureBlack #byusforus #checkmyswag #TidewaterConjure #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot
Alchemy. Preparing my first indigo vat for dyeing! I got so excited when I found this kit at @wild.wood.creative last year, and I now feel confident/compelled enough to begin. When I talk about practicing Ancestral traditions, I'm serious. Understanding technology and processes that informed their lives, making sense of the metaphors and proverbs and aphorisms that peppered their speech and reflected the lives they lived and the work they gave themselves to. In the same way that working the land unlocked aspects of Jesus' parables and my old folks' stories in new and exciting ways, so working with the technologies (or similar) of my Ancestors has opened fractal worlds of wisdom/knowledge/understanding for me. From planting and harvesting, to cooking, to language, to divination, to song and story, to design and construction, to fashion and philosophy... I love getting swept up in this journey. I'll actually test the vat tomorrow to see what's up, and hope to start dipping some pieces over the next few days leading up to my bday! If you have any tips or tricks for working with indigo (fructose process), please put me on... once I get a feel for this method, I want to dive into longer-term vat situations. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsApothecary #Ancestralwisdom #heritagepractices #indigo #dyedinthewool #imblueifiwasgreeniwoulddye #theloveofcolourdyekit
Action Enjoyed another stint at @crystal.lounge.seattle on Friday for the Belltown Art Walk! Offered bone reading to some really cool folks, and picked up some awesome crystal goodies for me and my mom to process grief. Had a great time last night at Georgetown Art Walk, joining in on Open Studios at @equinoxstudiosseattle ! Modest sales, but enjoyed getting to know some of the other artists/vendors, seeing familiar faces, and swapping stories. Also spent about 45 minutes on stilts, getting good practice and making connections with folks doing circus arts! More on that soon... With Spring having sprung and the light returning to the PNW, I'm looking forward to being busy with art walks, markets, classes... Also tryna bring in some doula clients, so if you know of any folks/families looking for a culturally-responsive, queer, leftist, witchy, herb-totin' herbalist, point 'em my way! And we're taking subscriptions for our Community-Supported Apothecary now until May 23rd! Pinned posts have the details, and l!nks are in b!0... #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsDoula #AltaredRootsGriot
This place has been virtually in my backyard my entire life, and until a decade or so ago I didn't know anything about it or its significance. Doughoregan Manor, the seat of the Carroll family of Maryland. Where 4 generations of my family were held captive, toiled, bled, and most died. Where 2 generations of the slaveholders' sepia children were bred and leased. My father's mother's mother's mother's father's mother's father's mother was the first to walk away from this place with her tenuous liberty. She, along with her siblings and parents, paternal grandmother, and great-grandmother suffered unmatched brutality here (and at the Family's other properties; Nan and Rachel I were mostly in Annapolis or at Carrollton). Today, I finally touched the soil. Stood on the ground*. Felt the breeze roll over the hill. Poured water into the land and offered prayers to the earth. For Rachel Hart Carroll. And Betty, Julia, Nancy, Sam, William, Flauvia, Cesar, Henry, Harry, Ellen... For Henny. And Jenny, and their parents Jack and Sue. For Yellow Harry Hart Carroll. And Stephen, Johnny, Sally, Jack, Kit, Sam... For Rachel Carroll. For Nan. I've posted about them before, especially Rachel Hart Carroll's 1811 manumission. I want to find funding for a research trip back home so I can visit and document the cemeteries, homeplaces, and worksites of my Ancestors, but this was an important first step. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #AncestralReverence #AncestorVeneration #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #thikr #zikr #remembrance #EnslavedNotSlaves *I did not pass the Private Property signs or trespass ETA: This is not the Manor house. It's another house on what used to be part of the Carroll estate. I *wonder* if this is where Rachel Hart Carroll lived after she was manumitted, because we know she was given a plot just off a ways.
Elevation Fulfilling childhood dreams while diving into cultural heritage practices. I grew up marveling at moko jumbies, chakaba, and kaki laanbe; wondering what it would be like to tower above a crowd. And as my Folks have been walking me through the development of 21st century masquerades for the Hoodoo massive, they've been riding me about getting started on sticks. After completing the construction earlier this week, I finally got up on them for some practice today. Timed myself for a while, but probably did about 25 minutes altogether. Gonna push for ~30 minutes a day as I build up my stamina, provided it's not raining too hard. Grateful to @lovespieces1 for pointing me in the right direction, @jesraschella for sending the schematics, and Marcus for joining me in experiencing the build. I'm very excited to develop this skill, and look forward to stepping out to bring healing and inspiration to those that need it. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsMoves #stiltwalker #stilts #mokojumbie #chakaba #kakilaanbe #culturalarts #heritagepractices #skywalker #mmanwu #masquerade #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #Ancestraltraditions #ConjureInSeattle #healingarts
Cleanse. Protect. Reverse. CPR is the foundation of every active magical practice. How do you rid yourself of wayward energy you've picked up over your day, or from negativity you've been surrounded by? How do you protect yourself from negative energy and intent directed toward you, fortify your defenses against psycho-spiritual suggestion or attack? How do you reject or reflect malicious energy or entities back to the sender so that they meet their own consequences? One tried and true way of accomplishing all 3 is to employ tools like florida* water (agua florida), on your self, your spiritual tools, and around your space. This floral infusion of plant medicine, alcohol, and distilled water is a go-to for spiritualists from Bmore to Bahia, from California to Cuba. Sadly, the most common version you'll find in stores and online is a bastardized mix of denatured alcohol, food coloring, and artificial fragrance; made by a company that got big through appropriating and marketeering Afro-Atlantic cultural and spiritual supplies during the Great Migration. The going and growing consensus is that while that blueish one in the white papered bottle is fine in a pinch (intention wins out over all), it's better to make your own... or purchase handmade from a person who is knowledgeable and committed to the Culture. Everyone's blend will be a little different, and each batch we make has its own character, but that makes our relationship to this tool all the more special. This batch was made marking today's new moon, and will mature at least until the full moon in April. There will be 2oz (59mL) spray bottles available, as well as a few select 750mL (25oz) gift bottles. #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot #floridawater #aguaflorida #notjustaBeyoncesong #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #plantmedicine #Ancestralwisdom #heritagepractices #ConjureInSeattle #getyousome
I bought the book a year ago, but I'm just now flipping through it. First of all, ALL of the recipes in @bryantterry's "Black Food" look delicious, and I want to make them all. Second of all... Y'ALL KNOW IT WAS HOODOO IN THA BACK?!?!?! As part of the self-care section, there's a whole subsection of recipes and rituals for CPR (cleansing, protection, reversal), Ancestor work, and personal spirit elevation! Yo... #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot #TidewaterConjure #BlackFood #BrantTerry #chef
Willie Mae Townes-Lewis (Ibaye/a na'm ekele gi/do nada kohv i) B. 1888 D. 1963 Grateful to my cousin Emerson Foster for taking this photo of Grandma Willie Mae and recoloring her face. Now to find someone to work the digital magic of recoloring the dress to be yellow again... Our Ancestors come Alice when we remember their faces, their voices, their smells, their favorite food and drink, their vices, their dreams and adventures. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #thikr #zikr #remembrance #AncestorVeneration #WeRemember
2024 Welcoming in the good times through planning, concerted effort, hard work, perseverance, reflection, and seeking/following guidance. Here's to a year of expansion; sometimes uncomfortable, but surely fruitful if directed with intention! Happy New Year! Harambe! (Let's All Pull Together) #NewYear2024 #KitchenConjure #NewYearsTraditions #Kwanzaa #NguzoSaba #bonereading #playingcarddivination #dominoes #ThoDemBones #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot
Excited to join @atabeys.rising.tides and @yerba.buenx for this warming winter workshop! --------- Reposted from @spiritrootmedicinepeople Spirit Root Medicine People's Winter Medicine Making Circle for 2SQTBIPOC is happening THIS SATURDAY, December 23rd at 10am PT/11am MT/1pm ET. ✨🍵✨ We'll have two presentations!! Highlighting Gerard @altared.roots who will be throwing down on an herbal infused vegetable soup stock! Details below. ✨🍲✨ Register for this free lifeway's skillshare in the linktree in our bio. For all who register, this skillshare will be recorded & available to view till Jan. 2nd. ✨🤎✨ Gerard Miller (they/them) is an herbalist, full-spectrum birthworker, Tidewater conjure, and Sacred Other who is committed to individual and collective empowerment through community education and services rooted in Ancestral memory."✨ "Spring and summer are known for the warm sunshine, colorful plants, and the energetic movement of animals and water, the stirring breeze in the air. In winter, we can find ourselves overwhelmed by the stillness, the quiet, the biting cold. In this workshop, we'll talk about how to draw in warmth and light by making a nourishing broth or soup stock. Using hearty vegetables, medicinal herbs, and nourishing fungi, we will build a delicious pot of healing magic. We will share and learn about the herbal properties of many herbs we have in our kitchens, and talk about ways to add intentional kitchen witchery to the craft of cooking! Food is medicine, and medicine is food. Enjoy exploring the intersections with us!"✨ --------- #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure L!nk !n ß!0
Now that I have the key... I'm so happy to announce that I've been offered* a residency with @equinoxstudiosseattle , a project of @watershedseattle!!! MY FIRST STUDIOOO!!!!!!!!! This space will allow me to develop my practice and expand my output, releasing some of the many ideas that have been rattling around in my brain. If only y'all knew the kinda mischief I'm bouta get up to...! 😂 -Herbal formulations -Fibre arts -Hoodoo paraphernalia & spiritual tools -Masquerades -Installations Oooooo, boi! I can't wait to get started!!! I blessed the space, and called on my Ancestors and spirits to support me and bless the work. And not just mine, but everyone who uses the building. May our dreams become reality and may our better angels prevail. *massive thanks and a huge shout-out to Melissa Knowles at Watershed for the opportunity to stretch my legs and spread my wings! #makemanifest #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsConjure #workingartist #artistinresidence #dreamthelife #livethedream
Seats are still available for this Friday's class, First Things First: Ancestor Veneration in the Hoodoo Tradition! Have you wanted to learn about Hoodoo/ Rootwork/ Conjure in a supportive environment, with people who are eager to learn and share, from people who practice actively? Do you have questions, or insights to share, about Ancestral veneration, altar-building, and creating/maintaining sacred space? Are you Black*? This is the workshop for you! Join me and @enter_the_mei Friday, December 8th from 5pm to 8pm at @wanawariseattle as we dive into the history of Hoodoo *as* Black culture, review some standard protocols to help you build your relationship with your Dead, and engage in creative projects to infuse remembrance into our daily lives! In-person and virtual options are available, and seats are limited! Refreshments will be provided. *this event is FUBU, and we mean it!'dWe invite our non-Black kin to donate to the #AltaredRootsMedicineShare to help offset the cost of attendance and/or supplies . #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot #Ancestors #AncestorVeneration #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #KeepConjureBlack #MakeHoodooBlackAgain #egungun #eggún #ndiichie #togbeawo #zansèt
~First Things First: Ancestor Veneration in the Hoodoo Tradition~ FRIDAY***, December 8th, 2023 5pm-8pm @wanawariseattle Join Us* in discovering the rich tradition of ancestor veneration in the Hoodoo community! Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of connecting with our Ancestors and honoring their wisdom... This event will provide an immersion in the rituals, practices, and beliefs surrounding Ancestor veneration. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from experienced practitioners and expand your knowledge of Hoodoo traditions. Mark your calendar and be ready to explore the Ancestral realm like never before! Over the course of the evening we will: -Discuss Hoodoo as the African American branch of West African Tradtional/Diasporic Tradition -Dive into the use of family history and genealogy to learn about our Ancestors -Detail the creation of altars and shrines to celebrate and commune with our Beloved Dead -Display our creative gifts and our love for our Dearly Departed by making remembrance zines -Dine and dance with friends new and old! Find out the many ways you are probably already practicing Ancestor veneration, and Hoodoo, by getting broader historical & cultural context for traditions and habits we take for granted. Learn how to bring mindfulness to your everyday life in a way that boosts your connection to your Dead! We ask that you bring a gift or offering to add to the communal Ancestor altar we will construct as part of the activities. You’re also welcome to include photos** or other items that honor or symbolize your Folks, and that could go home with you. Hosted by @enter_the_mei & @altared.roots [L!nk in ß!0] *this is a FUBU event. non-Black folks are welcome to contribute via promotion, or by blessing us with a donation to cover the costs of attendance and food **please only include photos of people who have passed away #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #TidewaterHoodoo #ConjureInSeattle #MakeHoodooBlackAgain #KeepConjureBlack #FUBU
This #GivingTuesday, please consider providing a donation to our #AltaredRootsMedicineShare! This fund allows @Altared.Roots to provide services to community members who may otherwise not be able to afford them. This includes classes/workshops, doula & conjure services, and herbal & spiritual products. Resources gathered through the medicine share may also be distributed as direct mutual aid to support relatives (expansive definition) in critical need or crisis. We especially encourage cis-, straight, hwite and economically privileged folks to give of what they have to those who have been left without. If you are for the individual and collective empowerment & healing of Black, Indigenous, POC/PGM, trans, and queer folks; we ask that you contribute to this effort. Thank you! #AltaredRootsApothecary #AltaredRootsDoula #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsGrows #AltaredRootsLLC #queerherbalist #nonbinarygardener #transdoula #queerconjure
Excited to be joining @alphabetallianceofcolor and @queertheland for an immersive workshop experience today! I'll be speaking to the significance of the simple bean as reflected in the Hoodoo tradition, and the ways they assert themselves throughout African American culture. My contribution to the meal will include black-eyed peas for dinner and bean pie for dessert. The Welcome Table: Ancestral Connection Through Food and Plants "This is a community meal and discussion about ancestral connection and veneration through relationship with food and plants. Hear from practitioners of different spiritual traditions about how their cultural communities connect and share your experiences as well. The in-person version of this event is a potluck and we encourage participants to bring foods that are culturally important to them or their ancestors. Virtual participants are also encouraged to prepare and share culturally/ancestrally important foods and to share about them in the virtual community. As part of Transgender Awareness week, we also encourage participants to bring photos of their (trans)cestors both in person and online." #AltaredRootsConjure #AltaredRootsGriot #foodismedicine #medicineisfood #growyourown #plantaseed #watchitgrow #Blackherbalist #queergardener #nonbinarygardeners #eattheweeds #Ancestralwisdom #earthbound #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Conjure #KeepConjureBlack #MakeHoodooBlackAgain #Ancestraltraditions
Found my first set of Elders and Ancestors in the 1950 Census! Looked for my great-grandfather Edward Bryant and clicked through, skeptical. Not only is that him with my great-grandmother and aunts & uncles, but my great-grandmother (Daisy Virginia Lewis-Bryant)'s parents lived right next to them and were enumerated with grandchildren and my 2nd great-grandfather's MOTHER, Sally Baskerville-Lewis!!! Her son, Daisy's father, Robert Lee Lewis's birthday is TOMORROW!!! Every genealogist I've ever talked to or heard speak agrees that this is spiritual* work. Our Ancestors want to be found, to be known, for their names to be called in love for the generations. And they will make themselves known, and provide confirmation to assuage doubt. #AltaredRootsGriot #genealogy #Blackgenealogy #AncestorVeneration #Ancrestralidade #FOE *there are some, especially my christian brethren and sistren, who have been scared away from their Ancestors. But let me kindly remind you that the saints of the Bible were constantly referencing their Ancestors ("the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"... "root of David"...) and tracking the "begots", and lineage was and continues to be a central aspect of Jewish life. And in the Black Church, we constantly make reference to the Old Saints, calling their names and telling their stories. This is Holy.
Reposted from @altared.roots They couldn't interpret our signs, so they called us illiterate. Possessing what @malidoma_patrice_some calls "terminal knowledge", they thought alphabets on paper were a superior technology, and dismissed our literary traditions as "folk art". But we have drums that can TALK! We have weaving traditions like kente that allow messages to be encoded in fabric, using both color & symbol AND a binary code of warp & weft. We have quilts that pointed the way to safety and Freedom. We have documents written in nsibiri that provide detailed narrative accounts. [Nsibiri/nsibidi also has sign-language and spoken forms that allow adepts to communicate on levels without being comprehended...] Adinkra symbols and vévé and odu ifa refer to principles and proverbs and stories, and invoke specific energies, and can tell or push a narrative or experience depending on their relationships to one another. This past week @themedicineshell and Nwamazi Onyemobi talked about how Santa Claus is a masquerade, the historical films about MLK and others are masquerades. Queen Mother Dowoti Désir and Prof. Bayonne Bello discussed the sung histories of Vodou and Candomblé with @ancestral_voices yesterday. These are historical texts that give colorful detail to certain events or to the lives of particular people. Even when allowing for "oral histories", the arrogance of the colonial intellect is self-limiting, and misses the greater part of Indigenous knowledge systems and wisdom traditions. Layered, comprehensive, esoteric, cyclical understanding looks like magic and superstition to a linear, reductive imagination. For that reason, western academics are constantly "discovering" phenomena that our peoples have recorded for ages. We are brimming with knowledge, waiting for us to return to it. Decolonizing involves *thinking* like our Ancestors... See as they saw, that you may know them- and yourself. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #IndigenousScience #TraditionalWisdom #ThinkAfricanly #ThinkLikeAnIndian #MaroonKnowledge
I was invited to share story once again this past Tuesday as a part of @naahillaheefund's Blue Jay Festival I sat and asked to be given a story that was worth sharing. What came was "When Spider Met Spider". What would happen if Kananesgi- Spider Grandmother- sat and swapped stories with Anansi, the trickster spider of Akan culture. How would these cousins, these relatives, greet one another? What would they talk about? How would they deal with the impacts of Nvnadaulatsvyi and the Ma'afa, of intersectional genocide, of cultural blending, of Diaspora? What role does story play in identity formation and retention, in memory, and in survival? Go check it out on Na'ah Illahee's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/2tEEkaKBsqs I'll have the link posted soon. #AltaredRootsGriot #Tsalagi #Akan #Kananesgi #Anansi #SpiderStories #folktales
Today is the Sunset Day of my 3rd great-grandfather, Henderson "Hence" Bryant. I was looking at the records I have on Ancestrydotcom, and "something" impelled me to look at the Find-a-Grave listing... There, it told what was in the ledger at Greenwood Baptist Church in Warrenton, NC. Among other things, the ledger included the FULL name of his mother, for whom I'd have no last name... She was buried at tge same cemetery, and when I looked at her listing, it included BOTH of her parents' names! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 I ask my Ancestors regularly to help me get to know them in many ways, including documentation. And for Grandpa Hence's sunset day, he let me find some of his mama's people! 🫀🫀🫀 And this all comes a day after I talked to Dr. Arwin Smallwood about the Roanoke River connections between Bertie (my father's side) and Warren County (my mom's side). 💛💛💛 And today I received this lovely athame to place on my altar for cutting & clearing... 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Genealogy is Ancestor work. Learn their names, and call them! #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #blitchgenealogy #chasetheroot #theNamedandUnnamed
They couldn't interpret our signs, so they called us illiterate. Possessing what @malidoma_patrice_some calls "terminal knowledge", they thought alphabets on paper were a superior technology, and dismissed our literary traditions as "folk art". But we have drums that can TALK! We have weaving traditions like kente that allow messages to be encoded in fabric, using both color & symbol AND a binary code of warp & weft. We have quilts that pointed the way to safety and Freedom. We have documents written in nsibiri that provide detailed narrative accounts. [Nsibiri/nsibidi also has sign-language and spoken forms that allow adepts to communicate on levels without being comprehended...] Adinkra symbols and vévé and odu ifa refer to principles and proverbs and stories, and invoke specific energies, and can tell or push a narrative or experience depending on their relationships to one another. This past week @themedicineshell and Nwamazi Onyemobi talked about how Santa Claus is a masquerade, the historical films about MLK and others are masquerades. Queen Mother Dowoti Désir and Prof. Bayonne Bello discussed the sung histories of Vodou and Candomblé with @ancestral_voices yesterday. These are historical texts that give colorful detail to certain events or to the lives of particular people. Even when allowing for "oral histories", the arrogance of the colonial intellect is self-limiting, and misses the greater part of Indigenous knowledge systems and wisdom traditions. Layered, comprehensive, esoteric, cyclical understanding looks like magic and superstition to a linear, reductive imagination. For that reason, western academics are constantly "discovering" phenomena that our peoples have recorded for ages. We are brimming with knowledge, waiting for us to return to it. Decolonizing involves *thinking* like our Ancestors... See as they saw, that you may know them- and yourself. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #IndigenousScience #TraditionalWisdom #ThinkAfricanly #ThinkLikeAnIndian #MaroonKnowledge
"I William P Green, Clerk of Anne Arundel County Court, do hereby certify, that it hath been proved to my satisfaction that the bearer hereof, named Rachel Carroll, aged about thirty two years, about five feet high, yellow complexion, has no perceptible mark, is one of the persons manumitted by Mary Merriweather, by deed dated the Eleventh day of Nivember in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight hundred and Eleven, and that she was raised in the County aforesaid. Issued the 17th day of April 1832." To know that this document holds the key to the last 210 years of my family's history is surreal. Two hundred and Ten years ago, a slaveholder (and relative) of my 6th great-grandmother received her legal manumission along with a group of others. Her great-grandmother Nann had entered the Carroll family estate through the dowry of Lady Darnall in her marriage to Charles "the Settler" Carroll, one of the Founding Pirates of Maryland. Her grandmother Rachel grew up being shuffled between Annapolis and Carrollton Manor in Frederick County. Her father Yellow Harry Hart Carroll and mother Henny came up on the same Doughoregan Manor (plantation) that she did. The family (Black and otherwise) continue to live somewhere along either Annapolis Rd or Frederick Rd/Ave. Rachel Hart Carroll is my oldest documented FPOC Ancestor. She was also beholden to stay on/near the Manor because her freedom was contingent on the whim of the wypipo around her, and her children were born while she was enslaved. I want to get down to the Howard County courthouse/archives (the Howard Section of Anne Arundel is now HoCo and this area is now Ellicott City). I hail HER, her forebears, and all of her children's children, this Veteran's Day. #AltaredRootsGriot #VeteransoftheMaafa #familyhistory #genealogy #BlackHistory365 #Ancestors [Images: 1/ Rachel Carroll's validation of manumission; 2-4/ 1860, 1850, 1840 censuses with Rachel Carroll listed among Free Persons; 5/ 1870 census]
We observe #HoodooHeritageMonth, and celebrate #Kwanzaa and all, but I actually mark my Ancestral calendar from this date, November 10th*. It's the day my maternal 2nd-great-grandmother, Alice Johnson Ebron, was born in 1906. It's the day her daughter and my great-grandmother, Mae Frances Ebron Ringgold, was born in 1927. It's also the day my [living] paternal grandfather, Ralph Douglas Miller, was born in 1944. I cried at my altar this morning, lamp lit, Eggún stick and bell ringing in my hands, as I called on and remembered my matriarchs. They babysat me while my mom was in school, loved me sooo good, and with them I was always at Home. I asked that they let me and all of their children know that peace, that love, that sturdy joy that they poured in to us so often. That they continue to be with us, to bless and keep us, to allow all of the good that is them to be manifest in us. Amen. Asé. Isé. Ameen. Ayibobo. I'm calling my grandpa later... #AltaredRootsGriot #Djeli #BlitchGenealogy #Ancestors #Legacy #Johnson #Ebron #CalvertCountyMD #SouthBaltimore #SharpLeadenhall #FOE *The year ends by celebrating my paternal great-uncle James Donald Gordon, Jr., born 11/8/1953
That thinned veil is real... When you post something about reviving a tradition, based on a prompt from your Ancestors, and somebody tells you somebody else put out the same message at the SAME TIME! Digging into research on John Canoe/John Kuner/John Cooner/Junkonnu as it existed in NC. There's a group that performs in New Bern, but I want to see it expanded and returned to its rightful place. Specifically looking at my Coastal Carolina and #CAWENC family for input/participation, seeing as how that's where it thrived on these shores. Yes, by all accounts it was the same as is celebrated in the English-speaking Caribbean to this day. What we did in NC is closer to what's done in JA and among the Garifuna than to what's done in the Bahamas today. It is also another instance of colonizers putting their hands in something and tainting it to the point WE abandon it. It was 1) seen as primitive and backward by the Black elites during Reconstruction and 2) was parodied in minstrel shows by Them. "Coonering" became a pejorative that we're all familiar with now... But it is an African masqueing tradition that connects the Diaspora, and that we could well reclaim as we re-establish and heal our relationship with Hoodoo and embrace the Africanisms we kept long hidden beneath the surface. I've reached out the the folks who re-enact it at Tryon Palace, and hope to be able to learn from them soon. #AltaredRootsGriot #AltaredRootsConjure #ReclaimingTraditions #JohnCanoe #Junkanoo #BertieCounty #masquerade #MakeHoodooBlackAgain
Got this TWO DAYS in a row! Today I listened when they said to actually *use* the oil lamp on the altar "because that's what it's FOR!" Y'all notice the lamp at the center of the table? XVIII- Table "Family" 10 of Hearts Water (spirit/emotion/intuition) On the way to work, I followed another instruction and called some of my Elders and spent the next hour and a half sharing time and energy, listening, and learning. Came out with some remedies (uses of camphorated oil), a family recipe that i need to investigate, and names and history of our family and the historic neighborhood we helped found. Also got confirmation for something I need on my altar. Such an affirming conversation, and fuel's been added to my fire. Grateful for time with family, and the ability to break bread even virtually. This is time we can't get back. Call your Elders. Be with your family when you can. Thanks for these cards, @grandmababyapothecary. They continue to speak and confirm Ancestral messages. And Janice & Cherekana from Speak On It! who were talking with Melvin J Collier about spiritual moments in genealogy, which amplified the messages I've been hearing to reach out. This what happens when I follow directions... 😅 #AltaredRootsGriot #HoodooHeritageMonth #genealogy #BlackHistory365 #HistoricBaltimore #familyhistory #SharpLeadenhall #CalvertCountyMD