Introduction

Abstract

Yvonne Chireau’s assertion that there is a thin differential line between religious fervor and the supernatural speaks insightfully about the permanence of folk belief among people of African descent. In May 2003, that permanence moved to new levels of acceptance when American Express aired an advertisement on primetime network television in which two members of the NBA team the New Orleans Hornets paid a local conjure woman—with their American Express card, of course—to put a “fix” on the jersey of Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant in anticipation of the first round of the postseason play-off series.¹ As the commercial aired, I began jotting down ideas on how I planned to turn my fascination with black women and spirit work into a dissertation project for the completion of a doctoral program I had not yet entered. I was sighting these women—conjure women—in almost every facet of American culture: film, television, music, visual art, and most notably in literature of the African diaspora. I was determined to get down to the bottom of what was driving these figures to the most visible realms of popular culture and what exactly was the significance of such hypervisibility. Conjuring Moments in African American Literature: Women, Spirit Work, and Other Such Hoodoo is the culmination of that journey. This monograph takes as its core focus African American literature and the conjuring tradition.

Where there are preachers, there are also Conjurers; where there are conversions, there are dreams and visions. And where there is faith, there is, and ever continues to be, magic.

—Yvonne Chireau, Black Magic