Is Queerness Divine? (Part Two) with Professor Eziaku Nwokocha

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What’s it like to enter a religious or spiritual space as a queer person? In Haitian Vodou, the divinities are ready to accept LGBTQIA+ practitioners—and are arguably queer themselves. In part two of our Pride Beyond Borders episode about this African diasporic religion, Professor Eziaku Nwokocha takes us into one of Manbo Maude’s temples to better understand this spiritual practice, and how its practitioners navigate questions of race, gender, and sexuality. Curious for more? Check out part one of our conversation with Professor Nwokocha, where we get down to basics on Haitian Vodou and Haitian history. Revisit the first episode from our Pride Beyond Borders series, all about global drag cultures, with Professor Kareem Khubchandani. And learn all about New Orleans history in parts one and two of our episode with Dr. Kathryn Olivarius! Eziaku Nwokocha is an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. She is a scholar of Africana religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodou in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Her research is grounded in a thorough understanding of religions in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, in gender and sexuality studies, visual and material culture and Africana Studies generally. She is the author of Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), which is an ethnographic study of fashion, spirit possession, and gender and sexuality in contemporary Haitian Vodou, exploring Black religious communities through their innovative ceremonial practices. This book is featured within the series Where Religion Lives. You can follow Professor Nwokocha on Twitter and Instagram at @dr_zaku, and at eziakunwokocha.com. Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo and Emily Bossak. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious, I'm Jonathan Van Ness.
0:07.9	And every week I sit down for a gorgeous conversation with a brilliant expert to learn
0:12.5	all about something that makes me curious.
0:14.5	It's Pride Month and we love Pride Month so we are celebrating Pride Beyond Borders.
0:19.7	And today we're exploring gender, sex and sexuality through the world of Haitian
0:24.5	Vodoo.
0:26.1	In part one of our conversation, we covered the basics of Haitian Vodoo, Haitian history
0:30.4	and the world of Mamba Mode.
0:32.8	Today we'll be going in depth on what Haitian Vodoo has to do with queerness.
0:39.6	Welcome back to the show, Aziyaku Wokoccia, who is an assistant professor at the University
0:45.5	of Miami.
0:46.5	She's a scholar of Afro-Conner religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodoo
0:52.4	and Haiti and the Haitian diaspora.
0:55.0	Her new book, Vodoo in Vogue, Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States
1:00.2	is published by the University of North Carolina Press.
1:04.1	Sidebar, the title of your book literally gives me chills on my queer quadriceps, my
1:10.2	queer triceps.
1:11.2	It's so good how are you?
1:14.4	I'm doing well.
1:15.4	Can I just say, I just think that when we think about embodiment and we think about how
1:21.3	our writing is political and who we are is invested.
1:25.1	I quit knowing just so much time.
	...

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