“A Consort of the Spirits” or How to Cultivate Indigo, Conjured by Herself

Abstract

This foreword is a personal essay in which I reflect on the other ways of knowing and the African spiritual cosmologies that were first introduced to me through Ntozake Shange’s novel Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo (1982). I walk readers through the quarter-century love affair I have had with black women writers and Shange, in particular. I share memories of my only meeting with the author and discuss the profound impact her novel has had on both my professional and spiritual journeys. The article engages in black narrative practices of multivocality, culture bearing, vernacular language, and conjuring moments. The testimony herein involves a powerful Ifá priestess who moonlights as an English professor, a creole-speaking ancestral spirit, and the deep cultural legacy of indigo (and Indigo). It is a story told in celebration and honor of Ntozake Shange’s creative, conjuring genius.