Conjuring Interiority: Womanist Reflections on Ancestor Veneration, Social Media, and a Philosophy of Aesthetics

Philosophical approaches to Black aesthetics have included how Black human beings make meaning and see value in their everyday lives. The theorization of this cultural and social production has been essential to a philosophy of aesthetics, as shown through the work of Lewis R. Gordon and Paul C. Taylor. These philosophers have provided historical trajectories of Western philosophy and Black expressive culture to define blackness and racialization’s impact on how people show up in this world. Therefore, this paper seeks to come alongside Gordon and Taylor and explore the role of ancestor veneration in the project of Black value and meaning-making within technology. By drawing from womanist reflections on aesthetic interiority, I will examine the diasporic tradition of Southern Hoodoo on social media as a site for understanding how ancestors assist in the inner cultivation, transformation, and construction of individuals and communities.