Donald J. Cosentino

Sacred arts of Haitian vodou

Other contributors include Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, Suzanne Preston blier, Karen McCarthy Brown, marilyn Houlberg, Tina Girouard, Laennec Hurbon, Mama Lola,lizabeth McAlist

On Looking at a Vodou Altar

want to change your view of altars by telling you a few things about them in Haitian Vodou. Altars happen. Altars must be fed. Altars must be awakened. Altars wax and wane in potency. Altars breathe. Altars tell stories. Altars reveal the state of being of individuals and communities. Altars can be in a bottle, or under your skin, or buried in your yard. They can be hung in the rafters of a house or the limbs of a tree, or they can be placed on the ground, on a table, or at the foot of a tree. A grave can even be an altar. Altars are places where the living and the dead, the human and the divine, meet. Altars are places where healing happens. To understand what I mean by healing, we need a few basic terms.

Oriki for Robert Farris Thompson

When Drewal was invited to write a praise piece for Robert Farris ompson for this issue celebrating the ieth anniversary of African Arts, he soon realized it was beyond his body-mind-heart, because Bob himself is larger than life, a person who has touched and inspired so many folks in so many walks of life and thought. So Drewal contacted his dear friend and colleague C. Daniel Dawson, who may know Bob better than anyone, as well as Bob’s immense circle of admirers. Drewal proposed that they solicit a variety of perspectives from the worldwide Master T “posse” and create a “posse praise poem” in his honor. We had only a short time to pull this together so we both reached out to friends far and wide, gave them four weeks to compose and send their thoughts and feelings in any way they chose. Some have written odes, others have sent poems. One sent a painting. Another sent a citation. Others have contributed photos of Bob past and present. Another sent a song that will be played (http://international.ucla. edu//media/podcasts/PROFE_T-ol-guw.mp3), and a dance that will be stepped (http://international.ucla.edu/media/mp4/drewal-dance-4j-k1b.mp4) ... All of these acts are acts of love meant for a person who inspires love and more. Where would we be in our understanding and appreciation for the arts of Africa and its many diasporas if the gods had not given us Bob? We think, not very far. He continues to show us the way to be and to think as he works on his latest opus on mambo. We hear his voice, we see his smile, we sense the move in his groove, and we learn once more to share the passion he possesses. Enjoy these words, images, and sounds of praise— this multi-oriki is for you! To My Favorite Mambo-Freak Henry John Drewal