Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman [Hardcover]

Arthur Flowers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 23, 2001

To create art that impacts the heart and mind of the community requires a vision. Realizing that vision is a lifelong journey. You must prepare yourself for the longgame, the longrun. Be religious about it. Superstitious.

- Arthur Flowers, MOJO RISING

An extraordinary memoir that chronicles not just a life, but also an entire belief system, Mojo Rising follows the enlightened path of an African-American philosophical and spiritual firebrand. A modern-day hoodoo man working his "mojo"-the empowerment of black souls-through the cultivation of hoodoo practice, Arthur Flowers continues a tradition birthed by Zora Neale Hurston and Ishmael Reed. With academic and emotional vigor, Mojo Rising fosters the transformation of hoodoo into a twenty-first century afrospiritual ideology and literary framework.

Unflinchingly honest, passionate and ever conscious of his role in the complex evolution of black society, Flowers fuses scholarship and soul-searching into this progressive literary riff.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

ARTHUR FLOWERS is the author of two novels, De Mojo Blues and Another Good Loving Blues, and a children's book, Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band. He is the recipient of a NEA Fiction fellowship. He is the webmaster of Rootwork.com and a performance artist whose presentation, Delta Oracle: A Griot Speaks in Tongues, keeps him busy. He teaches fiction in the Syracuse University MFA Program and is Executive Director of New Renaissance Writers Guild, NYC.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Wanganegresse Press (November 23, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0971581606
• ISBN-13: 978-0971581609
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,112,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mojo Rising - Great Memoir & Insider's View of Conjure & Art, June 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman (Hardcover)

I've been a big admirer of Arthur's work since I read his novel, ANOTHER GOOD LOVING BLUES (a terrific blues tale and love story about a piano player from Beale Street who falls hard for a beautiful conjure woman). In MOJO RISING, Flowers talks about how he came to his craft as a writer as well as how he came to conjure and how his practice has impacted both his literary work and his spiritual/political development. It's a fascinating work, well told and certainly worth the long wait! Now for his next novel!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mojo Rising - Great Memoir & Insider's View of Conjure & Art, June 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman (Hardcover)

I've been a big admirer of Arthur's work since I read his novel, ANOTHER GOOD LOVING BLUES (a terrific blues tale and love story about a piano player from Beale Street who falls hard for a beautiful conjure woman). In MOJO RISING, Flowers talks about how he came to his craft as a writer as well as how he came to conjure and how his practice has impacted both his literary work and his spiritual/political development. It's a fascinating work, well told and certainly worth the long wait! Now for his next novel!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, July 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman (Hardcover)

Thankfully, this is not another book of hoodoo recipes, spells and bones, but an honest and reflective work that takes the practice seriously. There aren't many works, scholarly or otherwise that addresses the subject and Flowers does so with style. I'm not familiar with his other literary work, but this one is a keeper.