00:00:00.640if you want to support the missing witches project you can do so by buying our book
00:00:05.280reviewing it on amazon and goodreads using offer code missing witches when you shop at foxglove
00:00:11.280farm become a patreon patron or pick up some missing witches merch at t public0.74
00:00:17.760you aren't being a proper woman therefore you must be a witch0.76
00:00:20.560you must be a witch happy juneteenth june 19th celebrates the day that the emancipation0.75
00:00:33.200proclamation was read in galveston texas now this happened on june 19th 1865 the
00:00:41.520emancipation proclamation had been delivered on january 1st 1863 two years earlier but it took
00:00:50.320two and a half years to make it to that last reading in Galveston, Texas. Now, I'm going to
00:00:56.860read a tiny bit of the Emancipation Proclamation, and maybe you can let me know if you think that
00:01:03.120we've lived up to this. Or maybe let's put it another way. If you think that we have lived up
00:01:08.680to this, I highly suggest watching Ava DuVernay's documentary, 13th. It's free on Netflix.
00:01:15.140All persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of the state shall be thenceforward and forever free, and the executive government of the United States, including military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons,
00:01:37.820and will do no act or acts to repress such persons
00:01:43.820or any of them in any effort that they may make
00:02:05.380for our listeners who haven't heard me,
00:02:07.820gush about you repeatedly on social media and on the podcast before. Can you tell our listeners a
00:02:14.340little bit about who you are and what you do? Yes so I am Lakeisha Harris. I am one of the
00:02:22.820founders of Black Witch University which started out of Black Witch Chronicles which was just me
00:02:33.280and a few of my close friends wanting to put more visibility on the fact that Black witches exist.
00:02:45.400There's this tendency to say like witchcraft is very Eurocentric idea and notion of self-actualizing
00:02:55.280power. When it is not, Black witches have existed all along, forever. And so we started Black Witch0.99
00:03:07.060Chronicles, which then came a need and a desire from the community to, you know, have us teach
00:03:16.500about what it means to be a Black witch. So, but also I am a freedom fighter, an abolitionist,
00:03:25.280I am the Director of Reproductive Health and Justice at Women with a Vision here in New Orleans.
00:03:32.200And for me, those things are very tied together.
00:03:37.800Like, they're all of who I am, and I utilize what I know of being a Black witch for the liberation of Black people.
00:03:48.320So I think that's me in a nutshell, but also so many things.
00:03:54.900a mama um a community person there's so many facets of me girl like I'd be like what am I
00:04:02.260gonna be today and I just be that thing what am I gonna be today is one of my favorite questions in
00:04:08.040the whole universe but that I mean that's what drew me I mean the first time I discovered your
00:04:15.700name was that feature in uh Afropunk was it Afropunk yes Afropunk yeah and so you you see
00:04:23.360and you the crush is automatic but when I actually started to dig into your work and see what you
00:04:29.540were doing that's that's when the true love came about because part of why I'm drawn to you and
00:04:34.840your work is because it's so holistic you know obviously the afro-punk aesthetic is there and
00:04:41.620it's gorgeous but you're also like a beekeeper and you know as you say what am I gonna be today
00:04:48.440Where am I going to be today? So I guess I'm just kind of like wondering like where you get the energy to start. Where does your power come from?
00:05:00.760Well, let me tell you something. I don't sleep. That's part of being a crone and a menopause.
00:05:07.120i mean the ancestors are like well you know get up at the witching hour at two and three a.m and
00:05:18.500like go outside and do ritual and you know um chrome things um uh no um where does my power
00:05:30.460it lies in the ancestors like seriously I mean they do a lot of pushing me and speaking to me
00:05:38.980and I do a lot of listening and they provide the things the tools that I need to keep going forward
00:05:46.500you know I would not I honor them as well as my elders you know I sit at the feet of their
00:05:56.480knowledge whenever I can, you know, um, divine spirit people in my community that lead me,
00:06:03.000that's where my energy comes from. But also I take very good care of myself. Um, I haven't been
00:06:09.700so good at doing that lately. So I've been pivoting to recenter, uh, what it looks like
00:06:17.080to care for myself. Exercising, like being very gentle, massage, lightening up, counseling,
00:06:27.280therapists, a witch needs a good therapist. I just want y'all to know. Like we have to engage
00:06:34.320all of our healers. So self-care for me looks like therapy, looks like holding myself accountable,
00:06:42.240but also being generous with myself to make mistakes you know and to you know come back0.96
00:06:50.060to the table and be like hey I like fuck this up I'm sorry I don't mean to cuss but I am a cuss
00:06:55.600and like recenter myself in community um when I do so yeah um but I'm also an Aries and we're0.96
00:07:07.400fiery like I have a lot of Aries um in my chart in my birth chart and so I am just like um I do
00:07:19.500things like from the head I'm just like okay we're gonna plow through this we're gonna get through
00:07:25.100this um and my intuitive moon of Pisces like have uh centers me in a knowing and a a deep
00:07:35.340prophetic knowing that, you know, what to take on and what not to take on. So
00:07:40.940that blended with the counseling and all the other things I take care of allows me to take
00:07:47.560care of the bees and the kids and the community. Care and healing is something that is like a main,
00:07:56.120you know, theme for you. I've been going over and over your chapter in Black Women's Liberatory
00:08:02.400pedagogies and and um I read you wrote something and I also heard you say it in an Instagram live
00:08:10.480and I've I've definitely like taken it into my heart as like a personal motto and I hope you
00:08:16.820can talk about it a little bit we talk a lot about safe spaces but Lakeisha Harris talks about
00:08:21.740brave spaces yes talk about brave spaces yes so like we cannot create safe enough space especially
00:08:33.700um being a black person and being in highly oppressed situations um on this land that we
00:08:44.560know as north america but also globally you know um there is no safe space and so you know but we
00:08:55.460can create brave spaces and that means like spaces where people can show up as their truest
00:09:02.820self and feel good about about doing that right um so and then it is also brave that we do that
00:09:12.800you know, work. It is also courageous that we do that work. So I don't necessarily believe like
00:09:20.840any space can be a hundred percent safe, but all spaces can be brave spaces where we can
00:09:31.420all situate ourselves in courage and be present. And how can we cultivate those spaces for other
00:09:39.100people check your privilege that's number one and we all have them in different ways um i may be an
00:09:48.560oppressed black woman and what all that means and also there are other oppressed women like trans
00:09:57.280women trans black women that um i do have a certain level of privilege over you know being a
00:10:06.260um cis queer woman you know uh so you know i feel like the number one would be like check your
00:10:14.800privilege and check in with yourself and and then number two really listen what the other person
00:10:21.860is trying to say before inserting your own voice um so um and to be quite honest that's really hard
00:10:32.340when we're engaging with people um and we have our own set of experiences around a certain issue
00:10:41.000um but if we can listen to them and and cultivate a better conversation where we're really hearing
00:10:49.140what it is they need to say and taking that in before inserting our own experiences
00:10:54.620which could be true right they they are true experiences but listen to their experience
00:11:01.820um and um number three um be helpful to a point where you're actually allowing them to actualize
00:11:15.620their own power right like when we're creating brave space um we don't want to over give to
00:11:25.560to the point where the person is powerless the person has and comes with full grace full power
00:11:33.400full ancestors full magic so your job is to you know be generous and kind and support that person
00:11:43.240to actualizing their power but um you don't want to be like so full of power that you're dominating
00:11:50.680everything around you you know um so i you know as an aries give myself grace around that you know
00:12:00.580and also you know learning to like pull it back aries pull it pull it back you know allow other
00:12:07.880people um room to to grow and achieve and actualize their own power so teaching has helped been
00:12:15.900helpful for me, especially teaching witchcraft, you know, to be like, yes, I feel like as one of
00:12:25.720the heads of this coven, because Black Witch University is a coven. So as the head of one of
00:12:31.460one of the heads of this coven or coven mothers, I'm always like so applauding the baby witches,
00:12:40.040the newer witches that are coming forth. And I'm like, oh, y'all give me so much life.
00:12:45.080So I guess that's one of the energetic pieces, like watching newer witches come in and, like, be present.
00:12:55.840So I think those are three things that you can do.
00:12:59.660And I, you know, am not just the person that coined the term brave space.
00:13:07.120Activists have been, you know, creating brave space for a very, very long time.
00:13:13.600So there's plenty of literature out there on it. And we definitely have to create those things because, I mean, as long as white supremacy has its hands on things, in particular, white men, there's no place safe for us, especially as witches. But we can be brave together.
00:13:39.660i think you're right i think that a lot of times these situations where it's like oh i was trying
00:13:49.400to help is because we didn't we brought the help instead of asking what help do you need
00:13:55.980we came with our version of what whoever needs and sort of put it on them right oh the first
00:14:10.200I'm a facilitator of you finding your own power, but I am not the help.0.65
00:14:16.680So, facilitating your own power, can you tell me about, like, the advent of Black Witch University and how it came to be, like, a formalized thing?0.75
00:14:26.300Yeah, so, Black Witch is still being a formalized thing.
00:14:31.080So know that it has taken years, and I imagine it still is going to take many more years, and hopefully the coven will have it, because I definitely want to release it at some point to other people.
00:14:49.020So Black Witch University came out of a need and necessity.
00:14:54.560Again, Black Witch Chronicles was very visible, and the community is like, well, but do you teach?
00:15:01.080And I was like, well, I'm always teaching. But they were specific about teaching witchcraft from a very Black lens perspective and liberatory perspective. And that is what I teach. I teach what I know.
00:15:19.760So from a Black feminist, reproductive justice, Black liberation lens, came Black Witch University.
00:15:34.440And so it started in on the lakefront of Chicago and has expanded or traveled with me to New Orleans,
00:15:46.120where I just acquired land space and this beautiful barn that I'm recreating so that
00:15:52.180we can, I can do a lot of hands on with my students.
00:15:58.460And then the pandemic happened and I'm like, oh, but anyway, you know, I'm recreating the
00:16:08.320barn that is on the land so that it can facilitate, have a classroom space as well as kind of a
00:16:15.360dormitory space up, upstairs, and, and also, you know, yeah, so it has been since 2016, we're now
00:16:27.5802021, and it has just grown exponentially, and also, you know, what people look for is, I have
00:16:39.680one student because i'm on the conjure course and it's divided into quarters so students coming in
00:16:48.640um get first like an understanding of land worship and we go land worship deities like you're rooted
00:17:00.040in what we came from Africa with, right? And I really am loving, what is it? High on the Hog,
00:17:10.500because this is exactly what I teach in the first quarter. Like, what did we come over here from
00:17:17.040Africa with? What is it about this land? What is it that our people utilize? What are the herbs?
00:17:26.360What are the ingredients? How do you pay reverence and veneration to the ancestors?
00:17:38.220You know, all of that, because, you know, that matters. That is the first crux of it.
00:17:44.460And then Lorena teaches divination. And she goes over, you know, everything from dousing to tarot reading and is working and developing bone reading.
00:18:01.140So we go through divination in the various ways that you can divine because I believe you cannot conjure until you can communicate with your ancestors.
00:18:13.420Like throwing a bunch of spells out there and really not knowing what the people need and not understanding what the spirits are saying, then I think that, I mean, I know that is not a good mixture.
00:18:28.960so um so we're not teaching our students to throw spells and then for the third quarter
00:18:38.000we come through and then we're teaching root work conjure um from a black liberation standpoint and
00:18:46.840what i mean by that is it's not just applied because you don't like somebody magic for me
00:18:53.440is not that way, you know, because that's from a conscience of ego. And it's not from a conscience
00:19:02.020of community. It's not from a conscience of Black liberation. So how are these spells that I'm going
00:19:10.180to teach you applied for not just self-gain or self-sustainment, but community sustainment and
00:19:19.140community gain and how we get free and how do we abolish, you know, the prison industrial complex0.91
00:19:28.500and how do we keep Black mothers safe in the medical industrial complex where they are dying
00:19:37.640exponentially in childbirth, right? How do we keep sex workers safe on the street0.95
00:19:47.000um and um from police and community members right so all of those things for me are wrapped in
00:19:57.160conjure and black liberation um and then we for the final quarter as a wrap-up we talk about like
00:20:07.720um healing justice as liberation and creating healing justice spaces with what we have taught
00:20:16.080you. And also, you know, how can you start your own business? A lot of the conjurers that come
00:20:24.040out of Black Witch University, and I try to post what they're doing, they're entrepreneurs. They
00:20:30.540may be working a job, but they're also applying liberation to community members,
00:20:37.780be it via their jewelry making um the uh healing justice practices they have done
00:20:45.940um whatever it is it's being utilizing community and that is how we've always used it as black
00:20:52.160witches you know it is it has been towards you know and there's a few that use it for benefit
00:20:59.680for their own benefit. But I'm thinking of, um, even Marie Laveau, um, if you look at what she0.89
00:21:08.660did, it wasn't just for her benefit. She, she was helping in a plague. She, there is stories about0.95
00:21:18.860her getting, um, you know, sex workers released in her time from prison and putting up funding for1.00
00:21:25.620that like right she she was not for play play she was not for doing the work to for her own
00:21:34.880benefit and financial gain she was doing it for the community and that is the legacy of liberation
00:21:41.600we've always used conjure in a Haitian revolution for instance you know conjure you know it all of
00:21:51.740these are our practices and they have been our liberatory practices forever so that is how we
00:21:59.140teach at black witch university that is how um i see it evolving in um in in a space towards
00:22:09.580liberation freedom and healing justice um period as long as i'm alive so
00:22:15.640um liberation um prison reform all of this makes me think of our sort of
00:22:24.860overarching theme today that being juneteenth and the the emancipation proclamation which
00:22:32.800i mean i'm canadian but you know i think as a whole um it's not something that we have lived
00:22:39.120up to um again you mentioned prison reform i always like to go back to ava duvernay's
00:22:44.300documentary 13th which really listeners uh I kind of forgot you were there for a minute
00:22:50.040listeners if you haven't seen this documentary please watch it it really illustrates how
00:22:56.320the Emancipation Proclamation comes off as symbolic when when gazed through like a modern
00:23:05.260lens so symbolic then i mean i mean when they when they did it i mean it so juneteenth is the
00:23:15.560celebration of when enslaved people in texas were told they were free right it it was it was a long
00:23:28.360time yeah and it took the vaccination proclamation two and a half years two and a half years to get0.97
00:23:34.500they're working and let's just be honest right they're making money making this country money0.98
00:23:45.880you know the roots of this country's wealth is on the backs of black and indigenous people0.99
00:23:54.780so i i mean so like the emancipation proclamation was there it has always been there it is symbolic
00:24:05.200it is the same thing of what's going what's going on here in louisiana currently and just going back
00:24:13.880to emancipation proclamation um and i want to say her name is henrietta i gotta remember her name
00:24:21.960but she is like she goes back and do does a lot of genealogy records and i'll give you her name
00:24:30.440um i'm gonna look it up in a minute but people were enslaved into the 60s in mississippi 19 1960
00:24:40.720on plantations here in louisiana and mississippi forced to work first forced to work
00:24:51.140so emancipation proclamation been irrelevant especially in light of the 13th amendment that
00:25:01.120says the only way that you can create slaves or enslave a person is by being duly convicted
00:25:12.100of a crime. And who has been incarcerated? It is black people. It is brown people. It is poor
00:25:22.640people. So, I mean, and this year, we tried to get rid of that in Louisiana. We had a1.00
00:25:34.600a representative in a state house trying to get that language taken out of the Louisiana
00:25:42.640constitution and they flat out said no we actually want to keep slaves we actually
00:25:50.920want to keep that language in there so know from which you're you're working
00:25:56.400and for me if you are a black person and you're a conjurer and you're not pushing for black
00:26:03.040liberation, what are you doing? Yeah. What are you doing? Yeah. If you are a white person and you0.95
00:26:12.560are, and I hate to use the word ally, but co-conspirator for liberation and you're not
00:26:22.280pushing to abolish slavery because that's what we're dealing with. We're still dealing with the
00:26:29.780mindset that Black people should be enslaved. We still have this disease over white people0.99
00:26:37.020that believes that I need to be enslaved. So if you're not doing that work, what are you doing?0.62
00:26:50.520It's not a rhetorical question, listeners. I really want you to ask yourselves,
00:26:55.840what are you doing? It's not a rhetorical question. What are you doing?
00:26:58.940No, no, no. It's not rhetorical. I just feel like, you know, all of these pretty candles for abundance. I get it. We all got to live. We all got to, you know, have some funds coming in, especially in a pandemic. I get that. Do that work. And light you a candle for some black liberation.
00:27:20.300also there are plenty of spells plant a seed it's springtime plant a seed
00:27:28.140of liberation for black people i promise you that seed planting and see which is noticed to be true
00:27:37.740that seed planting with a divine wish for you know black liberation in your garden for it to
00:27:45.740manifest in a way that is whole healthy and for black and brown people planting a seed that the
00:27:54.060um ice is the you know is completely done away with in your garden for it to flourish beautifully
00:28:02.700is a spell do that work and something that's been so uh evolutionary for me is is learning about
00:28:15.360black witches learning about african traditions um not so that i can practice them but because
00:28:23.600everything that i learn reveals the lie of white patriarchal capitalism every nugget that i uncover
00:28:31.420reveals the lie that i was told as a child as an adult every day in society right right and that's
00:28:40.400a revelation right there you know that's part of your work that's part of the magic is to educate
00:28:46.640yourself and i like what you said about studying you know african traditional religions not so you
00:28:54.500can participate but so that you can get an understanding as a white person what it meant
00:29:00.520to hide those things for fear that of death for me and my ancestors like i you know it is not
00:29:10.280your job to join in or uh uh you know and be in spaces right where you're not supposed to be0.74
00:29:18.240but in education about what it took to even carry it this far so that i can say i'm a black witch
00:29:27.080in public because that is right that's that's a privilege one in which i fully understand
00:29:37.720and unapologetic about stating in public.
00:30:07.240And that's fine. We have to get right with that idea that, you know, just because we've been told our entire lives that we have this entitlement to take land, to take, you know, let's go back, like to take, you know, lives.
00:30:23.500To take lives. To take freedom. Right. To take all of those things. It is not yours. It is not yours, white people. It is not.
00:30:35.340but have what's yours because what's yours is beautiful it's yours what is yours is beautiful1.00
00:30:42.880give those things back to black and indigenous folks that is actually their stuff
00:30:50.560yeah right and that's how you can tap into your magic there's so much beauty in celtic magic1.00
00:31:00.840it's beautiful i don't want it i want my african magic
00:31:07.540right because i'm my african american magic because that's a real thing i want that i want
00:31:17.400that hoodoo i want that conjure i want what my ancestors died to make sure that i persevere and
00:31:25.800have. And if we all tap into the power and sources that is ours and honor those things that is ours,
00:31:34.040can you imagine what we could do? Can you even imagine what we could do? They don't stand a
00:31:41.900chance once we tap into those things that are ours. Right. And there's also a wealth of things
00:31:48.940that are not closed like you said planting a seed there's no you know no there's no culture
00:31:55.380that can claim like planting seeds is ours that belongs to all of us astrology is another one i
00:32:02.100mean i'm reading a book right now called um post-colonial astrology which is kind of ripping
00:32:06.560up what i'm about to say but but you know the the stars are are there to behold right the stars is
00:32:13.240it's all of ours the cosmos it's all of ours it's all of ours the seeds they're all of ours
00:32:21.800except for gumbo that's ours uh except for yams that's ours
00:32:27.600okay i've been not watching how on the hog
00:32:40.240there are there are indigenous plants that clearly come from a certain area right um that
00:32:49.060are native to you know that location and those people that have cultivated for years and years
00:32:56.340and years we're not talking about that we're talking about a flower something beautiful
00:33:01.860especially if you're trying to tear down power structures that are ugly right we're talking about
00:33:08.420something that's growing some jasmine some like do those things that are accessible to you and
00:33:18.600are yours to hold all of us to hold and like you say i think these are these are political acts
00:33:25.880these are acts of activism even if you think like um everyone was regrowing our green onions
00:33:31.240at the beginning of the pandemic and that to me is such a miracle and amazing to behold but it's
00:33:36.220also like addressing food security and the fact that we have been alienated from our food and
00:33:42.240where it comes from and how it grows. And medicines, right? And medicines in a time where,
00:33:48.740you know, some things are restricted because of financial, um, because of financial oppression,
00:33:56.840right? Some people, poor people aren't getting, uh, food insecurity can be addressed from that
00:34:04.320magic. You know, just all of the things that we have within our power can be addressed. Honey,
00:34:13.240beekeeping is medicine. Like it is not, I make salves from the honey. It is not just to sweeten
00:34:21.100my tea. You can make candle wax. You can make postuses. Like there's so much. So a root worker
00:34:30.060isn't just somebody that's throwing somebody just throwing dust on somebody's doorstep she's not0.90
00:34:37.420somebody that's just burning the candle she is the medicine woman or they are the medicine people
00:34:44.760you know it is it is not just about being a witch and controlling or dominating uh power exerting
00:34:53.420power over people or things or situations. It is to be entrapped into and to be a wise person
00:35:03.580and knowing what the earth can produce that is healing and abundant. That's what being
00:35:10.380a Black witch is for me. Yeah, and I often find myself sounding conspiratorial, but it is a0.96
00:35:17.660conspiracy you know white supremacist heteronormative patriarchy wants to divorce us from
00:35:23.860from our power wants us to divorce us from nature wants to do all of these things because then0.99
00:35:29.740we're we're fucked you know we once once all of our power has been stripped from us then great0.99
00:35:35.220you know great it's not a conspiracy it's a fucking reality yeah yeah reality yeah the reality1.00
00:35:43.460when they say you know no you don't have control over your body no we're not going to give you0.98
00:35:49.620make sure that people don't um you know have to give you housing if you're lgbtq person like they
00:35:58.620can deny you housing they can deny you um a place to work no we're not going to raise the minimum
00:36:05.160wage from seven dollars an hour or two dollars and 13 cents if you're a service worker we're not
00:36:12.560going to give you no child care it creates the environment of you know complete and total
00:36:20.580oppression so that's not a conspiracy that is actually a reality that is going on in our state
00:36:27.880legislate state and federal legislators right now right now yeah so you know it's it's beyond
00:36:36.220conspiracy it is a reality that white people don't want us to survive yes yeah and i mean
00:36:44.260what's happening in texas right now they've decided that you know you can't have an abortion
00:36:48.900like within the time frame it would take you to find out you were pregnant it's like yeah
00:36:54.100i'm not a mother but i most mothers that i know didn't even know they were pregnant until
00:36:59.940six you know you never it takes the time right you're missed period that's four weeks yeah
00:37:10.720how long is it taking people to get into a doctor's appointment let's be real especially
00:37:17.020in a pandemic how long is it taking you to get into a doctor doctor's appointment one two weeks
00:37:22.900that's your six weeks right there you you done for six weeks and this is this is what they decided
00:37:30.920was an important thing to address like during a pandemic when people are you know dealing with
00:37:36.160poverty and and their physical and mental health struggles and again this alienation and and the1.00
00:37:41.820texas government was like you know it's really important right now to make sure women don't
00:37:46.480have control over their bodies it just i mean i'm not surprised i'm never surprised i'm never
00:37:51.740surprised yeah right this is um it's the same thing that happened like during the pandemic
00:37:57.840they took like at the when we first last march um was like we're shutting everything down
00:38:04.960globally whatever um louisiana mississippi texas arkansas ohio like this ain't just a southern
00:38:16.100thing y'all ohio and some other places took it upon themselves to say well you know um abortion
00:38:25.000clinics are not essential when everything was like only essential things were opened up you know so
00:38:32.060that people can survive but abortion clinic clinics that's not essential so we're gonna close them
00:38:37.060what do you mean it's not essential when you have put a time limit on which people can actually
00:38:43.440get an abortion it becomes essential that I get to choose you know to get an abortion in the
00:38:51.980time frame that you have closed up anyway so how is that not essential but also how is it not
00:39:00.160essential that I get to control my body say what I want to happen to it how is that not essential
00:39:09.220like it is ridiculous but also there are other things like at the federal level
00:39:15.900there is um right now i don't know if people are keeping an eye on it uh the voting rights act is up
00:39:23.240and i'm just like i was just watching um a documentary on um i gotta remember
00:39:36.100now listen I mama keep a lot in her mind so I don't remember everything but you can go on YouTube
00:39:43.060and find for yourself where they completely decimated a whole community of people
00:39:49.960in the 1920s because two black men wanted to vote and you mean to tell me that in 2021
00:39:58.820We have the Voting Rights Act that is up again, while simultaneously in mostly Southern states, Republican-held states, Republicans have been pushing efforts to disenfranchise voters down to implementing statewide voter ID, identification laws, purging the rolls because of fake assertions.
00:40:28.820that there was something that happened during Trump, that we stole the vote from Trump.0.98
00:40:34.120Everybody wanted Trump's ass out of office. Everybody. The world over. Ain't nobody stole0.99
00:40:39.340the election. You're just mad because Black women organized and got them voters to the polls.1.00
00:40:45.300So this is the retribution. We see it time and time again. We won. We went to the Supreme Court1.00
00:40:53.780and one in the June Medical versus Guy, right, case.
00:41:03.180And now we see Louisiana implementing more restrictive abortion measures.
00:41:10.300Just yesterday, it was the abortion pill reversal, right, where we know if,
00:44:25.080that we all need is healing. And we lost so many fucking people, right? We lost so many people0.99
00:44:33.720to the lies of white supremacy, because that's why we lost so many people here in North America.
00:44:43.480I mean, for people who have, you know, medicine at hand, and we had somebody because they didn't
00:44:52.860want to lose money. They did not want stocks to shut down, and they didn't want, you know,
00:44:59.580to lose an election. They didn't want to grapple with the depth of what this pandemic was, right?
00:45:09.440And I knew before they even told me, I kept saying, this is airborne. This is airborne. This is not
00:45:18.940something, like, we really got to be cautious around that, and I took, before they even shut
00:45:24.080it down, I told my boss, I'm taking my stuff home, I'm going to clean up, I'm going to go and take
00:45:29.440care of my coven and my kids, and make sure that they are safe, and then, you know, I can make
00:45:37.120sure I'm safe, and then I can make medicine, which I did start passing out to the community
00:45:42.840for their safety. So that passage is about centering yourself and your needs
00:45:51.640so that you can be fully present for the community. And that is a radical act.
00:46:03.200That self-preservation of healing is a radical act, but that's also healing justice.
00:46:10.480and we really need some healing justice and I don't mean just
00:46:15.540I don't mean just like spotting I mean a therapy session I mean
00:46:25.060getting back to the roots of our herbs and our medicines I mean
00:46:31.860having poignant conversations in community that can maybe hold
00:46:38.760um you know any difficulties or whatever I mean holding yourself accountable those things
00:46:47.740you know that's what I mean holding yourself accountable I think you know when we talk about
00:46:54.320the spa day kind of self-care but I think you know we really need to get it you know Audrey0.63
00:47:00.600Lord talked about um white women's guilt and defensiveness and um that if you again my fragility
00:47:10.520yeah so if you if you really want to address that you know as as a white person um then
00:47:18.060start with the man in the mirror that that's what I always say like dismantle your own defensiveness
00:47:24.200because that's the only way that you can be of any help to anybody else so self-care I think is
00:47:29.360Because it also, I found this, that, like, the more right people are with themselves, the more comfortable they are, the less they want to attack other people, the less they want to be shitty to other people, because it's just not interesting.
00:48:42.100Conjuring unapologetically for black liberation. I think that that would be it. And yeah, yeah. And0.97
00:48:51.420And then maybe a second bumper sticker of, I don't know, let's see, a second bumper sticker of, you know, don't be scared of a black witch.0.99
00:49:06.440Because some of y'all be so scared of black, like, y'all are really scared of a black woman saying she's a witch.0.99
00:49:14.900i mean they're scared of witches in general but they're really scared of a black woman
00:49:22.100um saying that she is a witch and and i've had even lovers you know i've had they would be like
00:49:31.020um i don't know like what do you mean about witch are you really a witch and when they find out i'm
00:49:40.200really a witch they're like um you know i don't know until i educate them about like what it means
00:49:49.480um and that i'm not going to make them my eternal slave1.00
00:49:54.820because i think they have that in their mind like once she get her paws on you she's gonna like1.00
00:50:03.280make you her slave forever and ever because that's what they that's what that's what media1.00
00:50:08.260has hyped up a black witch to be right a voodoo doll sticking pins um in you and all of those0.99
00:50:17.420things and when when they realize that i am both and i'm not here to oppress another black person0.97
00:50:27.320another black human being another person period i just really want to exist and live and be happy0.97
00:50:34.360and garden and be in my damn barn and talk to the bees I really don't want to do all of the0.99
00:50:41.020work that I'm doing but white people won't let me fucking be great I mean it would be great if you0.99
00:50:49.780could stop doing the work right wouldn't that be wonderful if everything was solved and you could0.99
00:50:53.600just go hang with your bees and not have to worry about liberation anymore wouldn't that be great0.89
00:50:59.080Wouldn't that be, because that's my idea of utopia for me, you know, I just want to go back there and get some honey and drink my tea and put on a honey face mask and soak my feet and talk shit with my people on the phone and do podcasts with Amy.0.96
00:51:21.100I really I mean you know I've I told you many many many times what a role model I consider
00:51:30.960you to be again because of your activism because of your holistic approach because of your no
00:51:35.900bullshit you know demeanor you know all of those things but so I'm tempted to say whenever I have
00:51:45.220these conversations but that's not true specifically today I just am like I'm so0.99
00:51:51.980fucking lucky that I have an excuse to email Lakeisha Harris and say hey will you talk to me0.52
00:51:57.760like before the missing witches project I would have just been some lunatic like hi I'm just a0.98
00:52:04.560creep who wants to creep on you in your life but now I have this now I have this and I got to meet
00:52:11.320you today and it's just it's it really this I can say about every conversation is that it really
00:52:18.280enforces for me that I am on the right path that we are all connected that the web is so vast that
00:52:25.460we may never understand it but that doesn't make it any less real yeah yeah it doesn't it doesn't
00:52:31.360it is interconnected and I feel like we as witches specifically because we're on the missing witches
00:52:38.360podcast have a lot to a lot of work to do um we have a lot of healing work to do and i hope that
00:52:47.100you are doing your own while you're also conjuring i hope that for everything that you are conjuring
00:52:53.400for other people in abundance that you are also doing that work for yourself and um i also just
00:53:03.140really hope that you tap in to what's going on in our environment what's going on in um our
00:53:13.240justice spaces because there is a need for that just whatever you're doing there are water keepers
00:53:20.140that are fighting for the water y'all fighting for the water whatever you're doing i hope that
00:53:26.640you're doing in justice and liberation and love witches of all color, of all descent, of all
00:53:37.100ancestry. I hope that you're doing that work because that is the crux of what it means to be
00:53:44.060a witch. And if you're not, what are you doing? To go back to our non-rhetorical question before,
00:53:50.720if there's if there isn't uh a seeking of justice in your witchcraft i really want you to examine
00:53:57.340that listeners not because i'm a guru who knows everything but because what i've learned on my
00:54:02.220journey is that witchcraft and activism are the same how you think we survived yeah and that i
00:54:10.680think is that a lot of the fear comes from seeing a force so powerful that you know to us being0.97
00:54:18.640scared of the black witch it's like nothing could stop her we tried everything we could think of0.99
00:54:25.320to put her down and yet here we are in 2021 and she lives to tuba survive joe yeah1.00
00:54:32.540okay so my my last question is this and maybe you already answered it with the honey mask but
00:54:41.360how are you planning on spending your Juneteenth? Well, for me, one, I'm still teaching. So I'm
00:54:50.500teaching. And for me, that is definitely an act of liberation that I'm able to do it.
00:55:00.120For me, I'm always, especially around this season, reading, rereading Black Liberation
00:55:08.440pedagogy and conjure i tend to sit with a lot of african and african-american folk tales
00:55:18.540um surrounding that because i think i mentioned that my one student was like
00:55:23.780i have been looking for black conjure material because i think that people who to go to is
00:55:32.960Catherine Ironwood for Hoodoo and Conjure, which she makes the statement that she gets her
00:55:38.920knowledge from African-American people, right? But that is not, for me, decolonizing the literature
00:55:48.700of Black Conjure. Decolonizing that literature means like going back into the slave narratives0.91
00:55:55.320and looking for their words on conjure and you can read those words and understand what they
00:56:03.600were talking about you got to have the knowledge of research and reading between the lines but you
00:56:09.160can see where they've held those traditions and was trying to bring them forward in the narrative
00:56:16.100So I find myself going back and rereading Frederick Douglass' work. I love the Dark 30s, Supernatural Tales of the South. Like, I read a lot of folk tales.
00:56:35.720um so yeah that's how i'm gonna spend my um my juneteenth steep in the narrative
00:56:44.500of slave folks and the literature of black freedom fighters amazing and i will add to that
00:56:52.980that listeners i do recommend i think there was only a hardcover version at first because it was
00:56:58.120like a hundred and twenty five dollars and i was like i just can't justify but then the paperback
00:57:04.100is out now people so you can i know less um black women's liberatory pedagogies um again
00:57:11.260lakisha contributed a chapter but the whole thing is is really fantastic so listeners i will put it
00:57:16.660in the show notes you can try to pick that up but in the meantime how can our listeners support you
00:57:22.540if they want to well so we are on patreon i feel like everybody's on patreon because people have
00:57:29.300found a way to you know um sustain themselves in a pandemic and that is so real um so we are on
00:57:38.180patreon as black witch university you can look it up um i usually have it on my instagram but
00:57:45.360we've been doing a lot of work towards decriminalizing sex work in louisiana
00:57:50.700with our deep south decrim so that's up um how you can support my work is if you know a sex
00:57:58.400worker who is in need of funds give funds to sex workers so you know that is a real thing
00:58:06.440especially in the south um yeah you can support my work by um contributing to bail funds i mean
00:58:16.760there are people that need that cannot get out of jail or languishing in jail um and because they
00:58:24.680don't have the money to get out of jail um so contributing to bail funds would be contributing
00:58:32.400to my work um contributing to black mamas who need doula care um in chicago there's an amazing
00:58:40.720clinic that is about to open up, ran by Black midwives and Black doulas, you can contribute to
00:58:47.980them, you know, so, so many ways. If you are contributing to the liberation of Black people,
00:58:55.500Brown people, you are contributing to my work. So, but if you specifically want to give to me,
00:59:00.820I'm at Black Witch University, and you can go there on our Patreon.
00:59:05.080And I'll, of course, put that link in the show notes. The other contributions you'll have to
00:59:09.460discover on your own people. On your own. Google is your friend, people. I tell that all the time.
00:59:16.080People will inbox me for some stuff you could have Googled. Don't inbox me on stuff you could
00:59:21.280have Googled. Because it's the same amount of energy to type it as a question to a person as
00:59:25.860it is to type it to Google and then you're not asking anything. But I do, again, I really
00:59:35.400appreciate this hour of ungoogleable brilliance that you've you've shared with me and our listeners
00:59:40.780today it's been such an honor and a privilege to meet you and to spend this time with you i'm so
00:59:45.420grateful happy juneteenth maybe together work toward the making a reality of the emancipation
00:59:54.800proclamation instead of this non-symbolic nonsense absolutely absolutely happy juneteenth
01:00:04.480black people know that the white people can never give you freedom you get your freedom
01:00:09.940on your own they will never give it to you um so freedom is something that you create0.99
01:00:16.640in your mind and make it a fucking reality yeah the master's tools will never dismantle the
01:00:22.000master's house never thank you thank you for your tools Lakeisha and I I look forward to0.96
01:00:28.900hopefully coming and seeing what you've built and your bees and everything i can't i really can't
01:00:34.680wait what i'm what i'm most excited about is a hug i really feel like you give the best hugs
01:00:41.520sunset i do i do so come on down get your hug when you can and thank you for inviting me to