The theme of this essay highlights an excellent example of embodied ways of knowing, especially that which has been nearly destroyed by western culture and prejudice.

 

Myrtle’s Medicine

 

by Kinitra Brooks,

Artwork by John Jennings

 

In this essay and podcast, rootworker and conjure feminist Kinitra Brooks reflects on the meaning and beauty of embodied ways of knowing. In a world where the cosmologies of Black women are continually erased and excluded from knowledge traditions, Kinitra revives the lineage that ended with her late great-grandmother, Mama Myrt, who first introduced her to rootworking traditions and inspired her life’s work. In recognizing historical examples of intellectual matriarchs such as Nanny of the Maroons, Zora Neal Hurston, Tituba, and more, she names conjure feminism as a frame where intellectual traditions and rootworking traditions are woven together.

 

Until next week,

 

The Emergence Magazine Team

 

https://emergencemagazine.org/story/myrtles-medicine/