There are certain conversations that feel like ceremony—where words, laughter, and memory become offerings. This one with Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani is exactly that.

A New Orleans native, award-winning playwright, priestess of OYA, and 8th-generation witch, Mawiyah carries both fire and tenderness in her voice. She joins me on The Practice of a Hoodoo Baptist to talk about what it means to live as OYA’s child—standing at the crossroads, creating art from the storm, and conjuring liberation through story.

In this episode, we explore:

* The sacred chaos of OYA and the spiritual lessons in change.

* How Hoodoo and writing act as portals for ancestral wisdom.

* Her books Conjuring the Calabash and the upcoming Hoodoo Saints and Root Warriors, and the power of magick made for women’s freedom.

* What it means to carry an 8-generation legacy of witches, healers, and storytellers.

* The purpose behind her podcast FishHeads in Red Gravy and her mission to center marginalized voices in the esoteric world.

Mawiyah reminds us that the work of spirit is not always soft—it’s movement, transformation, and truth-telling. Her words are both a spell and a sermon for anyone learning to live inside their own storm.

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