In this episode we're joined by poet Ashia Ajani as they talk about their poetry collection, their family's migration story, as well as how Black folk's liberation is tied to the liberation of the land. 

Ashia S. Ajani is a sunshower, a glass bead, a carnivorous plant, an overripe nectarine. Hailing from Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains and the unceded territories of the Cheyenne, Ute & Arapahoe peoples, Ashia is the author of one collection of poetry, Heirloom (Write Bloody Publishing, 2023) and a forthcoming nonfiction collection,Tending the Vines (Timber Press, 2026).

RESOURCES

• Heirloom by Ashia Ajani
• Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists by Leah Penniman
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman
• Black on Earth: African American Ecoliterary Traditions by Kimberly N Ruffin
• "BBQ Becky: The 'Woman on the Phone Meme,' Explained" by Catie Keck. Inverse.
• "Oakland Residents Fear Suspicious Death May Have Been a Lynching, Calling for Transparency" by Leanne Maxwell. SFist.
• "Family awaits results of independent autopsy on Delta State student Trey Reed" by Leonardo Bevilacqua. Mississippi Today.
• "Genealogy of a Vacant Lot" by Ashia Ajani

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

Between Us (pre-order) by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca. 

Welcome back to part 2 of our conversation with this season's guiding text: Black Earth Wisdom. In this episode, we talk about how racism has cut us off from natural spaces and our indigenous knowledge. We elevate our environmental justice ancestors and discuss how liberation of Black people is tied to the liberation of the Earth.

RESOURCES

• Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists by Leah Penniman 
• "Gmail’s smart replies will use AI to pull context from your inbox and Drive" by Jay Peters. The Verge.
• "Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries" by Nina Lakhani. The Guardian.
• "When You Die, You’ll Probably Be Embalmed. Thank Abraham Lincoln For That" by Brian Walsh. Smithsonian Magazine.
• Cob Hill Natural Building School
• "Mississippi's bear population is growing. What are they good for and why do we want more?" by Brian Broom. Clarion Ledger.

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

Between Us by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca. 

Hey y'all and welcome back to season 10 of Hoodoo Plant Mamas. It's our 5 year anniversary! We talk about our journey with the podcast as well as our future plans. We break down the book Black Earth Wisdom by Leah Penniman, discuss the work of Black environmentalists, and talk about Black folk's history with the land in the United States. 

RESOURCES

• Black Earth Wisdom by Leah Penniman
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman
• "Residents heartbroken after city rips out shared garden" by Kristen Lawrence. TheCoolDown.
• "Peoria community garden destroyed by city" by Shabnam Danesh. Central Illinois Proud. 
• Tea with Queen and J

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

Between Us (pre-order) by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca. 

In our season finale, we review Ryan Coogler's Sinners (2025). As Mississippi Hoodoos, we have to talk about the Mississippi and Hoodoo rep in this film. We get into Mississippi racial politics as well as whiteness and assimilation as vampirism. We discuss the need to let go of representational politics and learn to appreciate art for what is is rather than what we want it to be.

RESOURCES

• "if you loved Sinners, read these books" Leah Nicole. YouTube.
• Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb
• "SINNERS BREAKDOWN! Easter Eggs & Details You Missed!" New Rockstars. YouTube.
• Hess Love Instagram Post
• "The Story of Chinese Laborers and the Reconstruction South." May 2, 2022. Tennessee State Museum.
• "Inventing the 'Model Minority': A Critical Timeline and Reading List" Densho. 
• Passing by Nella Larsen

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

BE A PATRON!

https://www.patreon.com/hoodooplantmamas

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca.

In this episode we talk with co-authors Nyasha and Ms. Kenda about their picture book Saturday Magic: A Hoodoo Story. We discuss intentional and conscious ancestor veneration, overlooked Hoodoo rituals in contemporary Black culture as well as allowing Black kids to see themselves in stories. Nyasha shared her process when creating her tarot and oracle decks while Ms. Kenda talked about our ancestors using astrology and dreams for healing and guidance.

Nyasha Williams is a creator dedicated to healing, indigenizing, and liberation through creativity. With fifteen pieces of work published or in the publishing process, Nyasha advocates for diverse works of art, media, and literature that amplify unheard voices. Her tarot and oracle deck, "Black Tarot: An Ancestral Awakening" and "Elemental Alchemist," are testaments to her transformative artistry. Nyasha is the founder and creative director of Fire + Honey Press, a digital publishing honeycomb created toward collective liberation. You can find her on her website https://www.nyashawilliams.online/, Instagram at @writingtochangethenarrative and on The Creative Playground with Nyasha Williams on Substack. She lives on the stolen land of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes in Colorado with her husband.

Kenda Bell, a beacon of wisdom, graces the world not only with transformative coaching but also literary brilliance. An Essence bestselling author, she penned For Every Love There Is A Reason and recently ventured into children's literature with Saturday Magic, a delightful collaboration with her daughter in love. In The Ethical Selfishness Journal: 12 Pathways Back To Joy, Kenda invites women to embrace grace and self-understanding. Urging self-accountability, mirror work, boundary setting, and self-forgiveness, she crafts a roadmap for profound self discovery. Her coaching blends disciplines like Feminine Power, Bagua™ Astrology, and GROW™ & SMART™ methods, woven into her unique Joy Factor Method.™ Email her at [email protected] for regular astrological downloads.

RESOURCES

• Saturday Magic: A Hoodoo Story by Nyasha Williams and Kenda Bell-Spruill
• Root Magic by Eden Royce
• "Ep 47: Dreaming a New Dream with Austen Smith" Hoodoo Plant Mamas
• "Ep 37: Dreaming in Color with Nancey B. Price" Hoodoo Plant Mamas
• 8 Bill Mystery Pack/Ancestor Money
• Shop Our Tarot Collection on Bookshop
• The Enneagram for Black Liberation: Return to Who You Are Beneath the Armor You Carry by Chichi Agorom 
• "Kendrick Lamar plays 'Not Like Us' six times at Juneteenth 'The Pop Out' concert" by Daysia Tolentino. NBC News.

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BE A PATRON!

https://www.patreon.com/hoodooplantmamas

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca. 

The honorary third member of Hoodoo Plant Mamas, Ghrey Mbenza is back to talk about the 1994 Ariel School UFO Incident in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. We delve into conspiracy, truth, and paranoia and the need for curiosity when exploring the unexplainable. 

Tasha "Ghrey" Mbenza (they/she/he), more recently known simply as Ghrey,  is a black, queer, and autistic occupational therapist who is passionate about helping people of all ages reach their highest potential by identifying and building on their strengths. Ghrey is especially passionate about self-advocacy work with individuals from queer, BIPOC, neurodivergent, and/or physically disabled communities. Ghrey’s special interests include holistic cooking with a focus on  creative plating, making music, attempting to DIY everything, and their newfound love for conspiracy theory deep dives. Ghrey’s career related special interests include mental health, emotional regulation, sensory processing, and self-advocacy skills specifically with children.

RESOURCES

• "Ep 43: Understanding Neurodiversity with Ghrey Mbenza" Hoodoo Plant Mamas
• "Ep 9: Stories From Our Mothers" Hoodoo Plant Mamas
• "Documentary explores the UFO sighting that changed the course of 62 children's lives" by Liz Tung. PBS.
• "A 1994 UFO Sighting by Children Changed Lives. What If This Guy Made it Up?" by Nathaniel Janowitz. VICE.
• "Children talk about witnessing the 1994 UFO landing at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe" YouTube.
• The Telepathy Tapes
• UFO TikTok
• "Orcas Sink Another Yacht: Why Killer Whales are Attacking Boats" by isabel Cameron. Newsweek.
• Paradise. Hulu.
• Our Oceans. Netflix.
• "Something strange is happening underwater, scientists stunned by mysterious marine events" The Economic Times.

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

BE A PATRON!

https://www.patreon.com/hoodooplantmamas

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca.

In this episode, guest Julia Mallory returns to talk about how she's turned her life into art. We discuss believing in yourself, circumventing gatekeepers, and putting your work in the world on your own terms. Julia talks about how her creativity expands to other formats like reiki, and we discuss the necessity of creativity in surviving today's world.

Julia Mallory is committed to being a good steward of, and vessel for her ancestors' stories. As a storyteller, her foundational creative love language is poetry. She is the founder of the creative container, Black Mermaids, and a poetry editor for The Loveliest Review. Julia is also a visual artist and emerging filmmaker whose work has screened from Toronto to Iceland. Her latest loves include creating stop-motion animated collages and building TEN OH! SIX, a multi-generational community space for collective learning, connection, and creativity. Julia is the mother of three children and is from the Southside of Harrisburg, which she affectionately refers to as “the lil chocolate city that tries.” For more information, visit www.thejuliamallory.com. 

RESOURCES

• Survivor's Guilt by Julia Mallory
• Breathe by Julia Mallory
• "Belle's Boy" by Julia Mallory
• "You are the Second Person" by Kiese Laymon
• The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

BE A PATRON!

https://www.patreon.com/hoodooplantmamas

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca. 

Hey y'all! Hoodoo Plant Mamas is back! For our season 9 premiere, we tackle the clairs---what they are and our experiences with them. We get into what Toni Morrison called the "discredited way of knowing" as well as the ethics and burden of ancestral knowing.

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

RESOURCES

• Leah Nicole YouTube
• About the Boy. Leah Nicole Whitcomb.
• The Book of Juju. Juju Bae
• Sensual Faith. Lyvonne Briggs
• Apocalypse Still. Leah Nicole Whitcomb
• The Telepathy Tapes. Ky Dickens.
• "Unmasking the Meaning and Marital Disputes Behind Mumbo Jumbo." By Lakshmi Gandi. NPR.

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

BE A PATRON!

https://www.patreon.com/hoodooplantmamas

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca.

Our mini season has come to a close. In this episode, we recognize Black Speculative Fiction Month and the contributions Black creatives have made to the speculative fiction genre. We get into how Black horror reflects our deepest fears and how sci-fi is both pessimistic and optimistic about Black futures.

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

RESOURCES

• "The Argument of 'Afropessimism': Frank B. Wilderson III sketches a map of the world in which Black people are everywhere integral but always excluded" by Vinson Cunningham. July 13, 2020.

Books

• Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb
• The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due
• Let the Dead Bury Their Dead: And Other Stories by Randall Kenan
• Let's Play White by Chesya Burke
• The Black Girl Survives in this One: Horror Stories Edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennel
• The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
• The Kindred by Alechia Dow
• Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow
• "You Will Know Your Tribe by Their Joy" by Julia Mallory

Movies/TV

• Are You Afraid of the Dark? Amazon Prime
• Candyman [1992] Peacock
• Bones [2001] Tubi
• The Skeleton Key Tubi
• Sugar Hill [1974] Tubi
• Abby Plex
• Scream, Blacula, Scream Tubi
• Mr. Crocket Hulu
• Bite Sized Halloween Hulu
• The Blackening Starz
• Cuties Netflix
• They Cloned Tyrone Netflix
• "Space Traders" - Derrick Bell (1994) YouTube

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca.

What happens when divination leads you astray? In this episode, we discuss our relationship to divination tools, how Tarot is an ever changing forecast and how the Bible is not law. We also get into the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer and how the discourse surrounding this year's election disrespects her legacy.

RESOURCES

• "Does Everyone Have a Soulmate? No." A Little Juju Podcast. 
• Tarot by Bronx YouTube
• The Songs My Mother Taught Me by Fannie Lou Hamer
• "On this day in 1963" by Jerry Mitchell. Mississippi Today. 9 June 2024.
• "Tell It On the Mountain: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Pastoral and Prophetic Styles of Leadership as Acts of Public Prayer" by Breanna K. Barber. 
• "Fannie Lou Hamer" Biography Edited by Debra Michals. National Women's History Musuem.
• "Martyrs and Matriarchs: Women in Early Christian Apocrypha" by Robert Wilf

Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/shop/hoodooplantmamas

Apocalypse Still by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

bloom by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

About the Boy by Leah Nicole Whitcomb

BE A PATRON!

https://www.patreon.com/hoodooplantmamas

SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter: @hoodooplants

Instagram: @hoodooplantmamas

DONATE

Paypal: paypal.me/hoodooplantmamas

Cashapp: cash.me/$hoodooplantmamas

This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by Dani & Leah.

Our music was created by Ghrey, and our artwork was designed by Bianca.