African American Magic

Conjure, also known as Hoodoo or Rootwork, is an old, powerful, and increasingly popular system of North American folk magic. Conjure's roots derive primarily from West and Central African spiritual traditions, but it has also been influenced by Christianity, Jewish mysticism, and Native American practices. Hoodoo Sen Moise has been studying this tradition and working with Conjure for over 35 years. Here, he explores Conjure's history, principles, fundamentals, and ethics, while simultaneously providing a practical how-to guide....

Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn't know is that a baby will soon be delivered—by her niece, Amara—and delivered to the Melancons to raise as their own.

Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories. It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat—by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them—everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes.

All 13-year-old Izzy wants to do is get through this family camping trips as soon as possible, so she can get back to hanging out with her friends. But when she and a group of campers get lost in Glacier National Park, Izzy’s only thought is if they can make it out alive before the snow sets in. Deep in the forest, Izzy and her new friends are thrown into a world of magic, witches, wolves and shape shifters as they struggle against the forces of nature and magic.

Wayétu Moore’s powerful debut novel, She Would Be King, reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia’s early years through three unforgettable characters who share an uncommon bond. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him.

The world of culinary magic is about to implode as the greatest threat to their secret existence is carried—well, dragged—into this delectable second installment of the Hex Kitchen series. Kidnapped by the very group meant to protect her, Kenzie finds herself in another cooking tournament. This time, though, the stakes are higher. Every meal she cooks could be her last. If she’s going to survive, she’ll need to do the one thing she swore she’d never do again. Use her magic to kill. Braxton is facing his own battle. Each step that brings him closer to Kenzie jeopardizes his family....

At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger.

I loved you… until… A disastrous wedding left two families in turmoil. When the bride and groom-to-be both go missing after the catastrophe that was their nuptials, the families have to come together to find them. Lafyette “Fee” Wallace fled her wedding after her sister’s jealousy caused her to come crashing down from Cloud 9. Comatose and unaware of the trouble brewing back home, she may end up losing her life before she even truly gets to live. Jévon McCoy made one mistake on a drunken night that cost him the love of his life and future wife. He was now being forced to pay for ...

From Vanessa Brantley-Newton, the author of Grandma's Purse, comes a collection of poetry filled with engaging mini-stories about girls of all kinds: girls who feel happy, sad, scared, powerful; girls who love their bodies and girls who don't; country girls, city girls; girls who love their mother and girls who wish they had a father. This book invites listeners to find themselves and each other within.

In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana home. At the bustling crossroads of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives. A searing meditation on grief, female strength, and self‑discovery, Nobody's Magic is a testament to the power of family—the ones you're born into and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future.

In a post-apocalyptic world, 4,000 years from the present, Captain Senaya is the first of the Jaru forces to arrive at the far northern temple of the imposter deity, Queen Nouei. The Queen’s forces have been soundly defeated and she is now vulnerable. Senaya’s sole task is to secure a weak and defenseless queen until reinforcements arrive. But Senaya wants more. She wants to be the one who forces the queen to recant her false claims to divinity. Senaya is a seasoned warrior and this is her moment of glory. She has everything all planned, that is until she meets the queen.

When the windshield of his Chevy Impala shatters in a dark diner parking lot in Alabama, Melvin moves without thinking. A split-second reaction marrows in his bones from the days of war, but this time it is the safety of his fiancé, Bernadette, at stake. Impulse keeps them alive, and yet they flee with blood on their hands. What is life like now that they are fugitives? Pack passports. Empty bank accounts. Set their old life on fire. The couple disguise themselves as a pastor and a reluctant pastor’s wife who’s hiding a secret from her fiancé.

Danger L’Aventure grew up surrounded by magic. She is the daughter of the Adja High Priestess, and chosen child of the primordial god of wisdom, Danbala Wèdo, the Alovi. Magic is her birthright. As one of the Children of Ginen: Adja, Asogwe, and Bizango, the course of her life was predetermined. But that life is derailed when her father is killed by dark magic, and the murderer escapes justice. As an Adja, she is forbidden to use her gift for personal gain or vengeance. Disillusioned and consumed with rage, Danger turns her back on her house and magic. Until the night, while nan domi, ...

FACE THE STORM. Book 4 in the prize poly Sleeping Lotus series.... Jaded and betrayed, Raena Barren walks on eggshells, trying to keep her fellow spies from stabbing her in her sleep. They’re jealous of her fast rise through their hierarchy, and some dangerous people want her to stay put. But when someone she cares about gets a knife in the back, the only way to save him is to keep up the pace. And to rank again, Raena will have to face her greatest fear yet: she will have to share a bed with Jaen Portent. But this calculating, cold-eyed man has his own set of secrets… and Raena finds ...

The main character of this book is a black woman name Dallas Star she grew up in Chicago IL. The area Englewood she grew up is filled with poverty and violence.She had no father in her household just a hardworking mom. Her family abandons her mom because she had a daughter out of wedlock. Instead of going to college like her friends in classmates her mom had to move to a homeless shelter. Her parents tossed her mom in the streets to survive on her own.Dallas wanted something different in life she was born with a gift to be business-minded in this book you will see if she can build an Empire...

Gabrielle LeRoux was just like any other girl, focused on her academics and other normal teenage angst. That is, until her 18th birthday, where she inherits her powers and finds out she's a witch! She discovers that she is part of a long line of witches that descended from West Africa. They have the power to control the elements at will, breathe life into anything they wish, as well as take it away. The source of their magic comes from the melanin only their kind possess in their skin, absorbed from the sun and radiating through their bodies.

J. Sutter is a bonafide junketeer - a freelance writer, travelling from city to city, hungry for free meals and the discarded sales receipts of others to claim on his expense account. Travelling into the backwoods of West Virginia to write a piece on the unveiling of the new John Henry postage stamp and the ensuing John Henry Days festival, J. continues his nearly record-setting, three-month junket binge.

In the heart of Gary, Indiana, three adventurous siblings named Leah, Nasir, and Kingston roamed the bustling streets every summer day. Leah, a curious and resourceful girl with a passion for books, led the way. Nasir, her older brother, was a tech-savvy boy with a love for puzzles, while Kingston, the youngest of the trio, was a fearless and imaginative boy who dreamed of becoming a superhero, yet wise enough to know that being a hero doesn’t require powers but selflessness and bravery. After their parents banned electronics for a week. One sunny afternoon, as they explored a seldom-...

For Talib Ware, the past is simply what happened yesterday. Talib “Kalim” spent centuries falling in love with the same woman, Hagar. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Hagar, despite them changing name and form, have been drawn together. And he remembers it all. Talib has “the memory”. The ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he's previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times he and Hagar have been drawn together throughout history, she's found some way to break his heart, tearing them painfully and sometimes fatally ...

Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won’t stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store. Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity River Mumma appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb. Alicia doesn’t understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can’t remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail co-worker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart.