This event takes place on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required. Register at the link above.
Charis welcomes Gabrielle Felder in conversation with Juju Bae for a discussion of The Five Blessings of Ifá: Reclaiming Black Futures Through Afro-Indigenous Spirituality, a fierce and inspirational guide to Black resistance, resilience, and healing, using the principles of Afro-Indigenous spiritual practices.
The Five Blessings of Ifá explores how Black communities across the diaspora draw strength from ancestral wisdom, family, community care, and mutual aid, using the principles of Ifá—a West African spiritual tradition—as a guiding framework. Gabrielle Felder provides a blueprint for living a more fulfilled and abundant life through the blessings of Aiku (longevity), Aje (wealth), Aya and Oko (relationships), Omo (children), and Isegun (victory over negative forces), providing practical examples of how Black folks have built resilience and learned to thrive in the face of oppression.
- Longevity exists in ancestral traditions that we cultivate over generations, which Felder explores through practices of traditional herbalism as well as contemporary sustainability and food sovereignty movements.
- Wealth, in Felder’s interpretation, has to do with the richness created by community, including cultural traditions of food, dance, and music that connect seemingly disparate African diasporic cultures.
- Partnership, traditionally understood in Ifá as husband and wife, is reconsidered by Felder to include a wide variety of relationship structures, including familial bonds and queer families.
- To explore the blessing of children, Felder dives into the important history of doulas and midwives in Black communities, and their crucial role in combatting the high maternal mortality rate among Black women in the US.
- Finally, Felder draws out the meanings of the blessing of victory through a wide range of examples of Black autonomy: slave rebellions; the rejection of Euro-centric beauty standards; mutual aid practices among Black revolutionary groups; and the contemporary Black witch movement.
As a collective, Black folks have managed to usher in the five blessings of Ifá into our lives despite all odds. This book is a love letter to those who have come before us, and a guide to the possibilities that lie in our collective future.
About the Author
GABRIELLE FELDER (she/they) is a writer, data analyst, and aborisa born and raised in Orange County, California and is currently based in Los Angeles, California. She explores the history of the African diaspora, drawing from her interdisciplinary background in ecology, anthropology, and data analytics. Passionate about community work, she has trained as a postpartum doula, worked in community gardens, and led Afro-Indigenous ceremonies. She’s shared her work through speaking engagements with UC Davis Women’s Resources and Research Center and the Feminist Center for Creative Work.
About the Conversation Partner
Juju Bae is a practitioner of multiple West African and diasporic traditions, including Ifa and Hoodoo Conjure, and is an Ọṣun priestess in the Orisha tradition. She is the author of The Book of Juju: Africana Spirituality for Healing, Liberation, and Self-Discovery, a work of creative nonfiction that combines memoir, history, and guided prompts for readers to begin (or strengthen) their ancestral spiritual practice. She is the founder of Juju Bae, a multimedia Black-centric resource that seeks to demystify the Black occult through storytelling interviews and lighthearted conversations with twenty-first-century relevance. She is the host of the acclaimed A Little Juju podcast, which encourages Black people to find a home in Africana spiritual spaces and thought, and has starred in the Hulu docuseries Living for the Dead. She helps people, young and old, to remember that we have the tools and guidance with us as we journey through this lifetime. Juju is a sought-after spiritual teacher who loves to sing and holds a BA in psychology from Spelman College. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.
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