July 3 2020 | News
Healing Arts Practitioners Awarded Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant
Angela Smith in her healing work studio, Milwaukee, WI | Photo by: Jamie Robarge Photography
Milwaukee, WI – Angela Smith, a long-time Milwaukee resident, rootworker, and fiber artist, has been awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant from the Wisconsin State Arts Board for 2020-2021. The grant supports master artists as they pass down their craft to the next generation of cultural workers. Smith will be teaching “rootwork”, an African-American folk art and traditional medicine. Along with teaching group classes and building a school, Smith will work closely with Naya Jones as an apprentice. Smith and Jones applied for the grant because they share a commitment to reviving rootwork traditions beyond the American South.
“Rootwork includes many folk arts, such as altar making, broommaking, poppet or doll making, and medicine or mojo bags,” Smith said. Grounded in respect for ancestors and nature, each of these involve natural and found objects, ritual and ceremony.
A self-taught rootwork practitioner and fiber artist, Smith has owned an arts and spiritual coaching business, The Zen Dragonfly, since 2014. Her art work has appeared in shows, and she helps create markets for artists. In 2019, she received a Black Excellence Award for her creative entrepreneurship.
Jones is a geographer and healing arts practitioner originally from Texas. She met Smith while researching Black holistic healing in Milwaukee. In addition to researching Black traditional medicine in North and Latin America, she has been a healing arts practitioner since 2008.
“Rootwork includes many folk arts, such as altar making, broommaking, poppet or doll making, and medicine or mojo bags,” Smith said. Grounded in respect for ancestors and nature, each of these involve natural and found objects, ritual and ceremony.
A self-taught rootwork practitioner and fiber artist, Smith has owned an arts and spiritual coaching business, The Zen Dragonfly, since 2014. Her art work has appeared in shows, and she helps create markets for artists. In 2019, she received a Black Excellence Award for her creative entrepreneurship.
Jones is a geographer and healing arts practitioner originally from Texas. She met Smith while researching Black holistic healing in Milwaukee. In addition to researching Black traditional medicine in North and Latin America, she has been a healing arts practitioner since 2008.
Naya Jones crafting | Photo by Kevin Thomas
I’m excited to practice and learn more about rootwork first hand,” Jones said. “My experience with rootwork and other Black folk art traditions mainly comes from the few memories passed down on my father's side and from research.”
During the Great Migration of African-Americans from 1920-1970, rootwork traveled to the North, Midwest and West. However, like other African- or African-American traditions, it is often misrepresented as negative or stereotyped. Partly because of this stigma, rootwork is not always passed down between family members and neighbors.
Many of Smith’s students and clients have family from the South, but they have lived in the Midwest for many years or were born here. “They feel disconnected from their "roots," and rootwork is one way they reconnect with their ancestors,” Smith said.
Follow the apprenticeship and learn more about the School of Good JuJu MKE:
During the Great Migration of African-Americans from 1920-1970, rootwork traveled to the North, Midwest and West. However, like other African- or African-American traditions, it is often misrepresented as negative or stereotyped. Partly because of this stigma, rootwork is not always passed down between family members and neighbors.
Many of Smith’s students and clients have family from the South, but they have lived in the Midwest for many years or were born here. “They feel disconnected from their "roots," and rootwork is one way they reconnect with their ancestors,” Smith said.
Follow the apprenticeship and learn more about the School of Good JuJu MKE:
Ms. Angela Smith
Naya Jones, PhD
- Web: www.thezendragonfly.com
- Social Media:
Naya Jones, PhD
- Web: www.nayajones.com & www.rootworkhealingarts.org
- Social Media: instagram.com/rootedwithnaya
This apprenticeship is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
School of Good juju december 5th - December 26th,2021
Series of classes to get you on the path freedom and embody the old traditions. To empower, strengthen your intuition and work your Magik. 4 Classes/ 3 hrs each class. Taught by the Goddess of the Midwest a rootworker, black folk magik, and hoodoo practitioner for 7 years. Classes will be in an embodied format, learning, doing and making. Building skills you can use for healing work, manifesting, and removal of what you no longer need in your life. Giving you room to grow, be free and the realization that you are the magik! Class A- Divination- Using your intuition to read Tarot, Oracles, Pendulum, Tea Leaves, and Charms Class B- Mojos and Talisman for love, protection and abundance Class C- Candle Work and Petitions Class D-Building Altars. at each class you will leave with tools to create your sacred workspaces, handouts and workings we will do as a community.
Limited space for 6 participants, supplies, resource, and access to private group page to continued learning
Register here:https://thezendragonfly.as.me/schoolofgoodjuju
Questions? Email info@thezendragonfly.com or 414-207-4896
Limited space for 6 participants, supplies, resource, and access to private group page to continued learning
Register here:https://thezendragonfly.as.me/schoolofgoodjuju
Questions? Email info@thezendragonfly.com or 414-207-4896
