Witch Power: A Journey Into Contemporary Witchcraft with Emma Quilty

Join us at Hive Mind Books as Emma Quilty, witch and anthropologist, takes us on an immersive journey into contemporary witchcraft based on her new book, Witch Power.

From Witchcamp retreats to 'red tent' menstrual events, Voodoo priestesses running ghost tours from their vans to TikTokers casting hexes on a viral scale, Quilty will discuss how being a witch is a living, everyday reality.

After the conversation, Quilty will sign copies of Witch Power.

Hive Mind books is a queer independent bookstore and coffee shop in Bushwick.

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Books will be available to purchase at Hive Mind Books. We ask that books signed at our events be purchased at our bookstore. Book sales ensure that our independent queer bookstore can continue to keep the lights on and bring great events like this to our neighborhood. Thank you for your support!

If you would like a signed copy, but cannot attend the event, you can order a signed book from us. We ship most places!

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ABOUT THE BOOK

When most people hear the word 'witch', they immediately think of crones conspiring over a cauldron, a force of dark and vindictive power. But to hundreds of thousands across the world, being a witch is a living, everyday reality, much more varied than the fairytale image.

Witch Power follows Emma Quilty – herself a witch and an anthropologist – on an immersive journey into contemporary witchcraft, from Witchcamp retreats to 'red tent' menstrual events, Voodoo priestesses running ghost tours from their vans to TikTokers casting hexes on a viral scale.

Attentive to the history of witchcraft, she reveals the role power plays in how the figure of the witch has changed over time to suit the ever-present need to control and demonize women. Because to be a witch is to live in defiance of society's expectations and rules.

But while the witch is always castigated as a threat, Quilty finds that the witch is never alone: the witch is a survivor and a symbol of resistance. Ultimately, Witch Power is a provocation and an invitation to readers to experience with the author what it means to embrace witchiness and what witchy feminism could bring to your life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emma Quilty is a social anthropologist who works in the field of feminist science and technology studies. Based at Monash University in Australia, she is a research fellow in the Centre for Excellence for The Elimination of Violence Against Women. She studies shifting practices of algorithmic harm and gender violence, and how they are facilitated by digital infrastructures and emerging systems like artificial intelligence. Emma’s writing explores technology, power and gender

Her book Witch Power, based on in-depth ethnographic research with contemporary witchcraft communities, explores dynamics of gender, power, and resistance.

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