feature story "It's What I Can Do" Friday, Sept. 5, 12 08 p.m.
Two local artists give back to their community and its people by using art to fuel life. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments
feature Story The Imaginary World of Highlands Friday, Sept. 5, 12 06 p.m.
Best-selling novelist Cassandra King lets us a peek into her next book, Bridal Falls. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments delectable delights True Southern Spirit Friday, Sept. 5, 12 05 p.m.
We have enjoyed exploring, tasting, and celebrating with you and sincerely thank our loyal readers. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life A Different Kind of Animal Friday, Sept. 5, 12 02 p.m.
Local vet Dr. Michael Forcier trades records and microphones for dogs and cats to live out a dream. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Just dogs Bonkers for Bassets Friday, Sept. 5, 12 01 p.m.
These floppy-eared hounds are stealing hearts all over the Lowcountry. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Essay Discovering the Sounds of the Lowcountry Friday, Sept. 5, 12 00 p.m.
Musician and professor Trevor Weston searches for "exotic" sounds and gets a lesson in Gershwin and Gullah culture. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Feature Story Sustainable Seafood: On The Bubble Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Efforts to make sustainable food more visible and available are increasing. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life From Ballet Shoes To Bikinis Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Poland native Maria Dobrzanska Reeves uses her dance discipline to achieve success in Charleston. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments get outta town Kendall Lukas Visits Wilmington, N.C. Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Kendall Lukas has stars in her eyes and history under her feet as she explores the neighboring port city of Wilmington, N.C. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments essay Splashing Through Childhood Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Author Ron Daise looks for joy and finds it in remembering his children in their youth. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Cooking in the Great Outdoors Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
More on Megan Westmeyer and Jennifer Smith’s visit to Swimming Rock Fish Farm Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments from the editor Water World Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
I love being in water. I love that clear, cool swishing feeling around my ears. In fact, on a warm, sunny day, I like to go outside and get as hot as possible and then dive into a cool pool. For me, it’s refreshment at its finest. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments distinctively charleston Beach Music Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
You can see the shrimp boats from your restaurant table, so that shrimp pasta on the menu has to be fresh and local. Right? Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments just dogs Water Babies Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
We celebrate what we treasure in the Lowcountry and beyond that gives us an interior smile. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments from the editor Maxximum Style Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.
My 14-year-old niece visited Charleston with her parents in March. She’s from Moscow, Russia, and I had not seen her in more than 10 years. There’s a big difference between 4 and 14! Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments feature story Holy City Style Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.
When Nancye Starnes decided to move out of Memphis, she drew up a list of “must haves” for her new hometown: it had to be a walkable city, located on the water, and sizeable enough to support a vibrant performing arts community. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments just dogs Citadel Charmers Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Move aside – bulldog coming through. In January, the American Kennel Club announced that the Bulldog, one of the most recognizable and iconic purebred dogs, has muscled its way into the 10th spot on the organization’s annual list of the most popular breeds in America. Read More 2 comment(s) / read/add comments delectable delights Beyond Cookie Cutter Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Prime ingredients, Nostalgic tastes and creative bakers transform Lowcountry cookies into high-style confections. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life Working for Peanuts Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Anthony Wright, the man known throughout the Lowcountry and across the nation as Tony the Peanut Man, never intended to make his living selling boiled goobers. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments get outta town Kendall Lukas Visits Charlotte, NC Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
I had never been to Charlotte … not really. Well, I’ve gotten my kicks at Carowinds because that was part of being a kid in the Carolinas, and I’ve been to concerts at the open-air Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre because it’s a large complex for big-time acts. I’ve visited my sister at UNC Charlotte and have flown through the city’s major transit airport many times. But as for the metropolis of Charlotte, I’d only ever viewed its high-rises from afar. This time I took an up-close look at the interior and found a lot of reasons to relish in North Carolina’s top travel destination. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments distinctively charleston Turning Heads Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Bessie is almost 50 and looks as good today as she did in her youth – maybe even better. After all, back then she was hanging from a pole. Now she runs circles around the rest of us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Café Comfort Thursday, May 1, 03 46 p.m.
Banquettes are big. Heidi Walker, Allied ASID, of Walker Design Group, is currently working on three different kitchens that have banquettes. For this kitchen in a young couple’s home on Sullivan’s Island, Walker created a café atmosphere by building on the existing element of the laminated floor. “This promotes a casual impromptu gathering space,” she says. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments ESSAY Lowcountry Style Thursday, May 1, 12 00 a.m.
If you want to experience real Lowcountry style, you need to come to the Hebron Saint Francis Senior Center. Its members are long time Johns Island residents, a hardscrabble group of African-American women who meet every Wednesday for devotion and quilt making. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Jewel Box Saturday, March 1, 12 00 a.m.
Although one of the smallest rooms in a house, a powder room is nonetheless important since most of your guests will pay it a visit. Jennifer Rhodes, ASID, principal designer of J. Rhodes Design, took the popular concept of making this room a “jewel box” and ran with it, creating a luxurious surprise in this 3-foot by 7-foot Daniel Island room. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments
Recipe box On the table or on the rocks, Firefly Vodka is HOT, HOT, HOT!
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Oye Fix? Hoodoo: Hidden in Plain Sight
By Stephanie Burt Williams
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Photo by Rick McKee
Candles, powders, incense and oils are all part of hoodoo culture. High John the Conqueror root, entertwined around the curios, is well-loved by practioners, who make oils or mojo bags with it.
Blues music is filled with references to hoodoo workings
Here’s an excerpt of one of the most famous examples, performed by quintessential blues woman Ma Rainey.
From Black Dust Blues recorded in 1928 for Paramount Records:
We never spoke about this because you don't speak about it. You don't ask questions, you don't get curious, and you don't decide to call it by its name if you are asking. In fact, it doesn't have one. It's nothing, just some stuff, but if I see you walking down the street backwards, your face drawn and your spirit looking bound, I will know you kept asking. If you want to know bad enough, it will open up to you. The people will give you what you want, but you have to be prepared to take it – to get the consequences of messing with things you ought not to be messing with, things that sometimes you need so bad that the needing is like a fix in itself, you see.
Hoodoo is alive and well in the Lowcountry.
A direct descendant of African root-magic, "hoodoo" or "rootwork" is not a religion like Voodoo, but a botanical mystical art that can be mixed sometimes with religion, but more often works outside of it, along with everything and connected to nothing. It places a lot of emphasis on personal power for a people, the Gullah and Geechee, who traditionally were without political or economic power, but it crosses all racial and socio-economic boundaries, always has.
It's a practical art, one that asks something and expects results. It has brought lovers together, kept people out of wars by inflicting temporary irregular heartbeats, healed the sick, and caused some people to become sick. To some, you have to believe it to have it worked on you, but for most, it doesn't matter if you believe it or not. It just is, and if you're fixed, you're fixed. Fixing can be good, but it can also be very, very bad.
Hoodoo encompasses human experience, and many times it can just be about asking for more: more love, more money, more success. That's what all the personal curios are about; they are about a problem you feel you have and subsequently the "magic" you put on yourself. Then there are the actions that influence others, the thing from which hoodoo's reputation often stems. Because it's rarely spoken about, this can be "rooted" or "fixed" or "crossed," all meaning the same thing – one person is exerting influence over another through hoodoo.
"I once rooted two women, one to leave me alone and the other one to come to me," says Roger Pinckney, author of Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People and lifelong resident of Daufuskie Island. "The one left me alone but the other one came to me, and it was disastrous. It continued until I took the thing [charm] and threw it in the river on the outgoing tide. I don't think I ever want to root another woman."
Pinckney's father was the Beaufort County coroner for 36 years, and he occasionally saw people whose passing he declared "death by undetermined natural causes." Roger grew up with that as reality. And it's reality today.
"When I first decided to write Blue Roots, I thought I should document this stuff before it all went away with the older generation," he says, then chuckles. "But it ain't going away. I found out that it's here, and the next generation does it, just as strong."
In Charleston, there once was a place you could go if you wanted something to help with a problem. (In case you want to know, that's how you ask: "I have a problem," and you have to mean it.) That place was Cut Rate Drug on upper King Street, an honest-to-goodness drug store that had some curios in the back – curios such as Hot Foot Powder, Lucky hair dressing, Come to Me oil and candles to cross and uncross a lover. There were neatly folded packets of bath salts, amulets and lucky charms for the pocket, and it was there for the buying.
When Cut Rate Drug was sold a few years ago, most of the inventory was sold to Eckerd Drug on Calhoun Street. A few weeks later, someone went into Eckerd's and asked where all the Cut Rate "stuff" was. He was told that it was sold off the truck in Eckerd's parking lot the day it arrived, before men could even unload it into the store. And it was gone, dispersed in an afternoon, melting undetected back into the Lowcountry like water through pluff mud. But of course, no one admits that is what happened, and as for where it is now? It's where it always was – in the hands of the people.
It runs through the land, is of the Lowcountry as much as the water. It changes direction and flow, but it's here. You watch, child; and if someone asks, "oye fix?," they already see that you are.
Lowcountry Living is a bi-monthly magazine of The Post and Courier, 134 Columbus St., Charleston, S.C. 29403-4800. Copyright 2007 by The Post and Courier.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without express written permission from The Post and Courier. Printed by R.L. Bryan, Columbia, S.C. Click here to email the editor
Comments
Posted by nicole_colorado on ;September 10, 2007 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This was very interesting, I didn't know that this was such a big part of the culture in the low country. I would love to read more on this subject!