Luisah Teish ( ; also known as Iyanifa Fajembola Fatunmise) is a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, most notably of ''Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals.''Casey, Laura. "There's magic between plants, food and beauty". ''

Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, and a predecessor of the '' East Bay Times''. It was published by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' ...

'' akland, Calif28 Oct 2006: 1. She is an

Iyanifa is a term in the Lucumi religion that literally means "mother of mysteries" or "mother of wisdom" (''iyá'': “mother”; ''awó'' “mysteries"). Some adherents use the term "mamalawo," which is a partially African diaspora version of the Lucumi ...

and

Oshun Oshun (also Ọṣun, Ochún, and Oxúm) is the Yoruba orisha associated with love, sexuality, fertility, femininity, water, destiny, divination, purity, and beauty, and the Osun River, and of wealth and prosperity in the Yoruba religion. Sh ...

chief in the Yoruba Lucumi tradition.

Life

Luisah Teish is an African-American, born in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Her father, Wilson Allen, Sr. was an African Methodist Episcopal whose parents had been two-generation servants and only one generation away from slavery. Her mother, Serena "Rene" Allen, was a Catholic, of

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an, French, and

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

heritage. Her original ancestry also includes Yoruba West African.Kathryn Rountree. ''Embracing the Witch and the Goddess: Feminist Ritual-Makers in New Zealand''. Routledge 2003. Quote: "In 1992 Luisah Teish, who is well known internationally in Goddess circles as a writer and ritual-maker, visited New Zealand. Teish is of Yoruba (West African) ancestry, although she was born and raised in New Orleans. She was the guest facilitator at residential weekend workshops in Auckland and Hamilton dedicated to exploring sensuality and creativity in ritual contexts. Her book Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals (1985) is well known among feminist witches in New Zealand" In the late 1960s, Teish was a dancer in

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an African American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century and directed her own dance compan ...

's group, where she learned and performed traditional African and Caribbean dances. After leaving the dance company, she became a choreographer in St. Louis. In 1969 she joined the Fahami Temple of

Amun-Ra Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, rema ...

, and it was here that she took the name "Luisah Teish", which means "adventuresome spirit". She led the dance troupe of the

Black Artists Group The Black Artists Group (BAG) was a multidisciplinary arts collective that existed in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1968 to 1972. BAG is known for the convergence of free jazz and experimental theater. Members Members included saxophonists Julius ...

(BAG) in St. Louis after the departure of BAG's first dance leader, Georgia Collins. In the late 1970s she became an initiate and priestess of the Lucumi religion, and began teaching students in 1977. She currently resides in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Teish has said, "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." One author said she was the "perhaps the most well known.. Yoruba priestess.. of the an FranciscoBay Area" (2010).Lillian Ashcraft-Eason
''Women and New and Africana Religions''
ABC-CLIO, 2010, pg. 129 Another author characterized her as "..well known internationally in Goddess circles as a writer and ritual-maker."

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 , * ''Carnival of the Spirit: Seasonal Celebrations and Rites of Passage'' (1994) Harpercollins , "NEW IN PAPERBACK", ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ashington, D.C15 Jan 1995: x.12. * ''Soul Between the Lines: Freeing Your Creative Spirit Through Writing'' (with Dorothy Randall Gray) (1998) Avon Books , * ''Eye of the Storm'' (1998) E P Dutton , * ''Jump Up: Good Times Throughout the Season with Celebrations from Around the World'' (2000) Conari Press , * ''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'') ,

References

External links

Personal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teish, Luisah Living people American Santeríans Yoruba women writers Yoruba writers Iyalawos African-American choreographers American choreographers American spiritual writers African-American women writers American spiritual teachers Writers from New Orleans American people of Haitian descent American people of French descent American people of Yoruba descent American women non-fiction writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women 1948 births