#conjure women

[blackinperiodfilms]

They'd listened to cannon fire so long that the quiet made them anxious, waiting for worse to come.

Afia Atakora, Conjure Women

[queerauntie]

January Reads

This month was a GREAT kick-off to the 2023 reading year! As always, I can't thank my local library enough for access to all these wonderful books. While I have been exclusively using the library's audiobook collection, this year I've decided I want to start reading some physical books too, but remember: all forms of story telling is valid and no medium is better/superior to another!

I was very excited for the near year, specifically on twitter where i follow a LOT of educators. Why? Because of their TBR lists of course! And they had a LOT! This year, for those who aren't on twitter, it was a popular trend to finish the books on your shelf before buying new books. So like a book scavenger, I took screenshots and added every book I saw on my TL to my own TBR (I use The Story Graph app). Besides the Trixie Belden books, this month is full of those unknowing recommendations!

Without further ado, the books of January:

How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Trixie Belden: The Secret Mansion by Julie Campbell

Trixie Belden: The Red Trailor Mystery by Julie Campbell

Let's talk about the first book of the year, How The Word is Passed by Clint Smith. Smith did a really great job with this book, his perspective extremely potent. This book is a collection of Smiths experience visiting cities with ties to chattel slavery in America as he shares his thoughts and experiences at each location as well as the various degrees to which these sights share or skew (or in some cases, rewrite) their role in slavery. While some places do their best to preserve and share the full depth of what went on those 400+ years, some cities and memorials prefer to white wash over the history and tell their own, more "acceptable" version of events. What I thought made this book so impactful was Smith's personal accounts of his emotions and the consideration for every space he entered. It really stuck with me how he would contextualize the sizes of quarters and cells that enslaved Africans were trapped in. He holds space for the humanity that millions of people were denied. It was an honor to see the history through his eyes and learn even more about the effective blind spots we as white people have for the extent of racism. I highly recommend this book.

Book number two was recommended to me by a friend, and she had little faith that I would get around to it so I had to prove her wrong. I'm glad I did too because this book was surprisingly really good! The story follows Nora, a depressed young woman who can't find the will to live. She makes the decision to end her life, but instead she finds herself in the in between, suspended in time, surrounded by books. The Midnight Library, she discovers, contains every possible life she could've lived, every decision she didn't make, every path she didn't take. Nora is given the chance to find a book, a life, where she deems worthy of living. The journey Nora goes on is one of learning to love herself and seeing her value in life, not her potential, but her impact just as she is. It was a good ride, and definitely appealed to my short attention span as you get to jump through life after life with Nora, and just as you start to get bored, so does she. Then it starts all over!

Wow, this next book was another huge turn! This month honestly gave me so much reading whiplash, but in a good way, like the spinning teacups ride! The Twelve Tribes Of Hattie by Ayana Mathis was a love letter to Black Mothers everywhere. This book tells moms, "I see you and I understand." The Twelve Tribes of Hattie are about the 12 lives that a woman, Hattie, raised and cared for over her life. In a culture that demands so much of women, even more from mothers, it was very poignant that this book tells you the story of Hattie's life through the narrow lens of her role and relationship with her children and grandchild. Every family has a Hattie, had a Hattie, comes from a Hattie. This was a love letter truly and Mathis does a beautiful job, I was in tears throughout. A wonderful addition to any library.

Speaking of books I will be adding to my library, Conjure Women was a phenomenal book I also discovered thanks to the brilliant teachers of twitter! This story follows the lives of 3 women, a mother and daughter who are enslaved and the daughter of the white man that's enslaved them. The mother, Miss May Belle, was a midwife and healer who taught her daughter, Rue, everything she knew. Varina, the daughter of Miss May Belle and Rue's enslaver, grows fond of Rue at an early age and thus is also entangled in Rue's story. I really enjoyed this story because of its storytelling format. It's the kind of book that just opens a window into time and space, lets you observe for a little while, and then the window closes. It was beautiful and I will definitely be reading it again! This feels like a book you'll catch different things with each watch!

Holy CRAP y'all. I knew Legenborn was going to be good, great even. But I was not prepared for just how fucking mind blown it was going to leave me!! The story picks up right away and does not let you catch your breath! The writing is impeccable, and the characters are so amazing. Our protagonist, Bree, is a brilliantly developed character. This books weaves a story of grief, monsters, racism, magic, and the power of ancestors all in one wild ride! It was everything I loved about the fantasy of my teens without the weird incest (iykyk) and forced plots. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel and I really hope it becomes a trilogy that gets a prequel trilogy that keeps growing because this world is a really great one I want to learn more about! If you haven't heard of Legendborn or haven't made your mind up about it, you run and enjoy the journey of a lifetime!

This next book was recommended by my bestie. They read Trixie Belden books as a kid and became fascinated with them, so a couple years ago they went online and worked hard to collect over 3/4th of the series- turns out these books were not popular and therefore it's actually pretty hard to find! Of the 39 books made, my library has the audiobooks for the first 4! I was quickly endeared to this series, Trixie Belden gives off major lesbian kid vibes- a tomboy who just has the closest female friendships... I will eat it up every time okay!! The stories feel like chewing bubble gum, stimulating and fun with minimal effort. They are engaging, vocabulary-expanding, delightful tales. The stories even have some ridiculously high stakes for this bright young teen and will keep you on the edge of your seat (but not for long!). And my favorite part has to be the alluding to the next book, which picks up almost right where you left off! A very comfy read!

Yearly Book Count: 7/?? Yearly Reading Goal: 50 Books

[happilylostinwords]

Civil War fiction, from an enslaved woman's perspective

Conjure Women ⭐⭐⭐⭐ author: Afia Atakora awards: James Fenimore Cooper Prize (2021) & RUSA CODES Reading List for Historical Fiction (2021) publication: April 7, 2020 by Random House genres: historical fiction / fantasy / magical realism / adult / literary fiction / African American content warnings: rape / abuse (physical & psychological of adults & children both male & female) / racial…

[semper-legens]

126. Conjure Women, by Afia Aakora

Owned: No, library Page count: 395 My summary: The baby is a bad omen. His skin is pale and his eyes are pure black. Rue knows he is a curse, but what can she do about it? The former slaves are free. The Big House is no more. The white masters are all dead. But emancipation does not mean there are no more problems. Secrets are built on secrets, lies on lies, spells on spells - and when it all starts to come unravelled, the ghosts of the past come knocking at the door. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This was an interesting book. I just picked it off the shelf because it looked as though it could be worthwhile - I really like stories about folk magic and folk healers - and it turned out to be a thought-provoking read about the legacy of slavery and the nature of race in the United States. While I wouldn't go so far as to describe a book filled with atrocities against black people as 'enjoyable', per se, it was interesting and engaging and certainly told its story well.

(Warnings for slavery, anti-black racism, and systemic abuse under the cut.)

Our protagonist is Rue, a titular Conjure Woman and folk healer in a black American community just after Emancipation. She is something of an outcast, not quite having the same level of respect that her mother once did in the community, but is completely dedicated to them and wants them to both live and thrive, as they could not under slavery. The book is told with narration in the present day and extended flashbacks to the past when the characters were enslaved, slowly revealing pieces of a larger picture until the reader understands the context behind everything that is happening. Rue is a woman on the edge of desperation. She is doing all that she can to keep her town alive, but faces the constant threat of white soldiers from without, and from the tension within. The people never really trust her, not fully and completely. And they're never really demonised for that - the reasons they don't trust Rue are understandable, and she's far from a saint, which makes the push and pull between her and the town far much more engaging.

Magic plays a huge part in the story - magic and Christianity. Oftentimes Rue, a folk healer and traditional herbalist, is contrasted with Bruh Abel, a Christian preacher who is slowly converting the town to a more devout Christianity. Rue notes that in the slavery times, they had been trooped up to the church and forced to participate in the service, but Bruh Abel's brand of Christianity is from a black men, for black people. Rue's healing, on the other hand, is slowly being seen as demonic or evil, despite the fact that she has a lot of success, and that the people still go to her for charms and curses. Sometimes she'll make them, sometimes she'll give more of a placebo or practical cure. Interestingly, as with the conflict between Rue and the town, neither side is really treated as being 'right'. Bruh Abel offers one thing, Rue offers another. We are led to be mistrustful of Bruh Abel, but that's largely due to Rue being our point of view character - she mistrusts him, so we do too. It's an examination, really, of the distinctions between folk beliefs and practices from Africa, handed down through family lines, and newer Christian faith, originally forced onto the enslaved people by their enslavers, but later genuinely believed and practiced in their communities, for their communities. It's a dichotomy that persists to this day, and the book shows the beginnings of it.

And, of course, there's the subject of race. A lot is made of skin colour in this narrative. Rue is quite dark, her friend Sarah is quite light and is probably the illegitimate daughter of the plantation owner, and Sarah's child is so pale as to be basically white, but with pure black eyes. The kid (Bean) is seen as being a curse, and that curse is tied to Rue. Mostly because of those eyes. It's interesting that the light skin is not really commented on so much, but the dark eyes are, especially when other characters are mentioned as having 'deep brown African eyes' and the like. Colourism plays a huge part in the story, with constant emphasis on characters' skin colours and the role that plays in their lives. At the end, Bean ends up leaving for the North alongside a white woman, completely passing for white - Bruh Abel is very light-skinned, which helps people trust him, while other enslaved/ex-slave characters are dark, and aren't given respect as human beings because of it. It's a constant part of the checks and balances the characters place on their world, and the portrayal is interesting for how it's woven into the narrative in a sensitive and subtle way while still being plainly apparent. The knife-edge the black characters live on is obvious, and the fact that even after emancipation they're all still far from safe really brings home the reality of being black in 1800s America.

Next up, World War Two, and a glint of hope in the midst of a concentration camp.

[jareckiworld]

Vanessa Smith — Conjuration (oil and acrylic on canvas, 2024)

[gent-illmatic]

[allaboutthatshowmanlife]

The reason the fake dating trope works so well for buddie is because even canonically they are both that brand of fucking stupid where they think it’d actually work

[propheticeve]

If someone claims to practice Hoodoo but says they don't pray, then they are not truly practicing Hoodoo. Don't let the trend followers on social media make you believe that prayer is bad. Praying as a beggar is bad because it spiritually opens a portal, and begging is a form of low vibrational energy. This low vibrational energy allows spiritual leeches and parasites to attack you, leading to spiritually transmitted demons, psychic attacks, mental episodes, and freak accidents. However, with proper prayer and an understanding of how your words can access different realms, you are truly practicing Hoodoo correctly.

[poeticsapphicism]

if barbie belonged to GLORIA and she lived in a DREAMHOUSE does that make barbie gloria’s DREAM GIRL ??

[lovelydwyn]

When I was in my twenties I sat down with a journal and wrote a letter to spirit about who I wanted to love through a list of physical, vocational, and personality attributes and characteristics, similar to little Sally in Practical Magic, though I had not yet seen the movie at the time. The universe delivered exactly what I asked for with terrifying accuracy. As the years pass by, that accuracy reveals itself to me more and more.

The first mistake I made was that I did not specify that I wanted the person I would come to love..to love me back. I sometimes wonder how things would have turned out had I written that down. The second mistake I made was that I referenced a fictional character and said I hoped he’d be “like” him. Naively, I did not specify that I wanted nothing to do with the horribly cruel attributes that archetype possessed and only sought the good. The cruelty inflicted on me broke me to my core, made me suicidal, cost me tens of thousands of dollars, humiliated me, silenced me, kept me hidden, caused me to endure the loss of a child, the loss of friends, the loss of two jobs, damaged my relationship with my daughter, and extinguished my spirit. What I manifested impacted not just myself, but the lives of every person that has ever loved me, some who simply just knew me, and even some who never crossed my path.

In another dimension, my higher self and a team of spiritual elders have orchestrated all of this for my higher good. They heard (or rather read) my call. Karmic justice is always being served. I know that despite my suffering, I have always been divinely protected. I learned how to speak and interpret the language and symbolism of spirit, to become a shape-shifter, to rebuild from nothing, to transmute my pain into prosperity, the meaning and feeling of unconditionally loving someone, how to conjure multi-dimensional beings, that we all have the spirit of the phoenix laying dormant within us and the power to awaken it whenever we choose, and perhaps most importantly, to be careful what I wish for.

[vampvice]

Women in Horror I Love #3! This time I am interviewing my friends about horror movies!

[pretend-erin]

18/31 women in horror - Valak

[niquescircle]

“God is in the neighborhood!”

The miracles you encounter when God is in the neighborhood! This statement means that, God is blessing those who are close to home (YOU). The community is receiving the harvest of seeds that were planted. It is told that when you are in celebration while God is visiting, God is sure to knock on your door! Indicating that as you are in celebration for others and in total praise by the goodness of things around you, your energy is attracting your own goodness and blessings.

“You ready big fella?”

When the community win, we alllll win! Never too short of time will yours be arriving at your door.

From an astrological view: Jupiter is also in the sky right neoww with Sun being in Pisces! Jupiter is allllll about faith, beliefs, expansion, and miraculous blessings. Walking by faith and not by sight is the best way to be during this season while Jupiter is on the throne. Take a look and see where Pisces is in your chart to get a deeper detail of the themes of this season.

So we give thanks for our praising in advance. For our praises place us in alignment of our ire (blessings). It prepares us for the goodness that is arriving. May we continue to be in the spirit of gratitude as the goodness that is promised to us has been received!

-Korede 🦋

[ex-uallyactive]

bridgerton season 3 & the new quinn story voiced by andrew scott dropping on the same day…today’s the best day of my life

[ashshanea101]

Follow me on Insta: Tarot_withAsh

[gent-illmatic]