Conjure Local: A Conversation on Hoodoo in the Chesapeake
Hoodoo is
an African diasporic tradition of survival, defense, and spiritual medicine, emphasizing it as a sensorial and living practice rooted in the wisdom of ancestors and the land.
Chesapeake Conjure Society is
a socially and environmentally conscious organization dedicated to the historical research and preservation of the Afro-Chesapeake experience, with a focus on cultural continuation, Hoodoo practices, and advocacy for Black communities. Our work involves studying and practicing Hoodoo as a living tradition rooted in the region's history, nature, and spiritual practices, and is dedicated to empowering Black communities.
Conjure where you stand.
Chesapeake Conjure Society presents Conjure Local: A Convo on Hoodoo in the Chesapeake
Moderator: Jenne Afiya
Panelists: Aisha Snead, Toya Smith, Cherelle Robertson, Victoria Williams, and Hess Love.
An evening of conversation on the local traditions that continue to shape Chesapeake Hoodoo. We’ll travel through local ancestors, memory, practice, and what our responsibilities are to this place. In conversation we will explore how this tradition has taken root along the Chesapeake Bay and it’s local watershed areas. We’ll talk about how our ancestors and our magic adapted to the landscape, and how this practice continues to guide us. This gathering invites reflection on what it means to conjure where you stand. Monday, October 20, 2025
Questions inspired by internal conversations and frequent inquisitions:
When you think about being of a place, not just living in it, what comes up for you?
Our ancestors were both uprooted and rooted here, made to stay AND made to move. How does that duality show up in your work or spirit?
You all once said that Chesapeake Conjure Society could only be born in Baltimore because Baltimore demands authenticity. What do you mean by that?
When we call Hoodoo an ethnoreligion instead of folklore, what shifts for you?
There are so many “roads” inside Hoodoo: the healer, the scholar, the dreamer, the historian. How do those roads cross where you stand?
If Baltimore and the Chesapeake are both soil and soul for this work, what kinds of community or spiritual infrastructure do we still need to build here?
When you think about Hoodoo alongside womanist theology, where do you see connection or tension?
How have the women in your family (mothers, grandmothers, aunties) shaped the way you understand faith or freedom?
When we say AfroChesapeake, what are we really naming: a geography, a lineage, a way of seeing the world?
What does it mean to “become native” to a place your ancestors were forced to build?
It’s been said that you should never ignore your immediate ancestors, that “starting with Grandma means starting with home.” How does that guide you?
What stories or rituals help you feel rooted here in Chesapeake land?
If Hoodoo is both a faith and a way of being in the world, what is it asking of us now, here, in the Chesapeake?
What does it look like to live like we plan to stay (in our bodies, in our communities, on this land)?
