Generations ago, Africans trafficked away from their homes met the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
This is a dedication to the memories they held, the traditions they created, the lives that they’ve built, and the generations they’ve birthed to carry the legacy.
A Living Tradition
The dominate society has created a narrative that Hoodoo is an abandoned, deboned, religion, that now takes shape in superstition, folk magic, and other tricks. That is false.
Hoodoo flourished and morphed into culture, music, dance, food, proverbs, and kinship rituals.
Hoodoo in the Chesapeake region has been alive for centuries, and is currently experiencing a renaissance byway of spiritual activism.
Who we be:
The Chesapeake Conjure Society is a socially, and environmentally, conscious collective that has formed out of, and within, the Hoodoo Tradition.
To our community, our work is simply known as “upholding the tradition.”
To those that are newly learning about Chesapeake Conjure Society, they learn that we are dedicated to the historical research, and preservation, of the AfroChesapeake experience.
We aim to empower Black communities and histories of the Chesapeake, byway of cultural continuation.
We create community events and digital workshops to practice our mission of cultural preservation. We use those connective features as multi-sensorial methods to share the intangible heritage of the Hoodoo tradition, to current and future waymakers, historians, griots, creatives and Hoodoo practitioners.
Our holistic work includes, but is not limited to, Trauma Informed Ceremony, Advocacy for Local African American Communities, Ethnoecological Memory and Place Making, Stewardship of Historically Black Cemeteries, Investigating and Preserving AfroChesapeake Culture, Culturally Centered Environmental Education, Demystifying Hoodoo (an often Marginalized Black Atlantic Religion), and utilizing the Grief Practices of the Chesapeake-Tidewater region to help our community navigate ongoing systemic failure.
Chesapeake Hoodoo has connection to deities and entities of all elements, it has STRONG connections to water spirits, Tobacco spirits, and spirits of metal and technology.
Local elevated ancestors have fostered connections to local water ways, metal working and trains, tobacco, and resistance against systemic antiBlackness.
Music & Movement
All Saints Day, A Hoodoo Celebration of the Dead
— A Guide, find it here
“What better way to kick off #HoodooHeritageMonth and a full moon in Aries than dropping a lil something to get you ready for spooky season? With the delusion of white supremacy and ills of capitalism wreaking havoc on our people, we gotta stay spiritually strapped up and ready to embody our warrior spirits to see us to freedom. And the Hoodoo Hawtie Hive is here for ya baby. With much delight, we present to you - Rootworkin’ for the Rev: The Zine
This is a 40 page zine dedicated to building collective knowledge and skills for Black people to use ancestral technologies to heal and liberate our people. It is a collection chock full of Hoodoo/ATR-based recipes, directories for herbs and crystals, playlists, tips & tools, journal prompts, and vivid ancestral remembrances.
This resource is solely for Black people of direct African descent, and curated by Black queer and non-binary spritual practitioners in the DMV and Baltimore area (JeKendria Trahan (who conceptualized and designed the zine) Barbara Michelle , Chelsea Dee , Chantel R. Bennett (who co-lead the conjuring of this zine with JeKendria) Hess Love & Malaya Obatinuke Nicole) You can get a copy here.
