"a brilliant, honest, informed, energetic meditation and memoir from the heart of a 21st century conjureman. from delta modernism to post-modern condemnations of all fundamentalisms and all retro-intellectual methodologies wherever they exist, 'rickydoc' shows us the way to black empowerment-the longgame for our souls' survival. no study of black intellectual strategy and striving in our new global order of existence can afford to ignore this passionate hoodoo ceremonial. a triumph and treasure!"

houston a. baker jr

"arthur flowers, in mojo rising, fuses philosophy, religion, literary history, and autobiography, to show how this religion of the people has influenced contemporary writers. he has put his mind, heart, and soul into this work, which challenges all of the popular presumptions about african-american writers."

ishmael reed

"mojo rising is a retrospective self-examination, a combination of popular history, literary criticism, afrocentric psychology/theology, and political treatise. a writer telling it all. if we have ever wondered about the motives and inspiration behind flowers' earlier works, de mojo blues and another good loving blues, we now know. this book is a work in motion, not only a rumination on the past and present condition, but also a meditation on future possibilities, both personal and collective. a book about the 'longgame.'"

ike okafor-newsum

"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 hoodooman 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"

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