Luisah Teish
Luisah Teish is a teacher[1] and an author, most notably of Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals.[2] She is an African-American, born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was an African Methodist Episcopal whose parents had been two-generation servants and only one generation away from slavery. Her mother was a Catholic, of Haitian, French, and Choctaw heritage.[3] Her original ancestry also includes Yoruba (West African).[4] and she is an Oshun chief in the Yoruba Lucumi tradition.[2]
In the late 1960s, Teish was a dancer in Katherine Dunham's group, where she learned and performed traditional African and Caribbean dances.[5] After leaving the dance company, she became a choreographer in St. Louis. In 1969 she joined the Fahami Temple of Amun-Ra, and it was here that she took the name "Luisah Teish", which means "adventuresome spirit".[5][6]
In the late 1970s she became an initiate and priestess of the Lucumi religion.[5] She began teaching in 1977.[7] She currently resides in Oakland, California.[8][9]
Teish has said in an interview "My tradition is very celebratory - there's always music, dance, song, and food in our services - as well as a sense of reverence for the children. It's joyful as well as meditative."[5]
One author said she was the "perhaps the most well known.. Yoruba priestess.. of the [San Francisco] Bay Area" (2010).[9] Another author characterized her as "..well known internationally in Goddess circles as a writer and ritual-maker."[4]
Bibliography
- What Don't Kill is Fattening: Poems by Luisah Teish (1980) Fan Tree Press ASIN: B0007BJRRE
- Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals (1988) HarperOne ISBN 0-06-250859-8, ISBN 978-0-06-250859-1
- Carnival of the Spirit: Seasonal Celebrations and Rites of Passage (1994) Harpercollins ISBN 0-06-250868-7, ISBN 978-0-06-250868-3[10]
- Soul Between the Lines: Freeing Your Creative Spirit Through Writing (with Dorothy Randall Gray) (1998) Avon Books ISBN 0-380-79142-0, ISBN 978-0-380-79142-2
- Eye of the Storm (1998) E P Dutton ISBN 0-525-94032-4, ISBN 978-0-525-94032-6
- Jump Up: Good Times Throughout the Season with Celebrations from Around the World (2000) Conari Press ISBN 1-57324-551-8, ISBN 978-1-57324-551-7
- What Don’t Kill Is Fattening Revisited: Twenty Years of Poetry, Prose, and Myth (2002) Orikire Publications
- Zulu Shaman: Dreams, Prophecies, and Mysteries (with Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa and Stephen Larsen) (2003) Destiny Books (New Edition of Song of the Stars) ISBN 0-89281-129-3, ISBN 978-0-89281-129-8
References
- ↑ Malka Drucker. White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America. SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2003
- 1 2 Casey, Laura. "There's magic between plants, food and beauty". Oakland Tribune [Oakland, Calif] 28 Oct 2006: 1.
- ↑ Luisah Teish, Adapted from "Grandmothers Council the World" by Carol Schaefer, Trumpter Books, 2006
- 1 2 Kathryn Rountree. Embracing the Witch and the Goddess: Feminist Ritual-Makers in New Zealand. Routledge 2003. Quote: "Teish is of Yoruba (West African) ancestry, although she was born and raised in New Orleans."
- 1 2 3 4 Albert, Mimi (January 1987). "Luisah Teish - Yoruba priestess, psychic channel, storyteller, shaman - describes her return to the goddesses and gods of her West African spiritual roots.". Yoga Journal (Active Interest Media, Inc.) 72: 33–35. ISSN 0191-0965.
- ↑ Directory, Institute of Noetic Sciences: Luisah Teish, wuote: "In 1969 she received initiation into to the Fahamme Temple of Amun-Ra in St. Louis, Missouri."
- ↑ Greta S. Gaard. Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens. Temple University Press, 1998
- ↑ Aikens, Charles. "Teish Says Oakland Deserves To Be Saved". California Voice [Oakland, Calif] 08 Dec 1991: 4.
- 1 2 Lillian Ashcraft-Eason. Women and New and Africana Religions, ABC-CLIO, 2010, pg. 129
- ↑ "NEW IN PAPERBACK", Washington Post,[Washington, D.C] 15 Jan 1995: x.12.
External links
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