Tony Kail

Author, ethnographer and explorer.

Author of 'A Secret History of Memphis Hoodoo: Rootworkers, Conjurers & Spirituals'.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

The Beale Street Hoodoo History and Folklife Museum opens October 11th at A.Schwab on Beale.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Memphis and Mid-South People:

If you have an elder here or that has transitioned that is a spiritual worker I would like to honor them at the upcoming Beale Street Hoodoo History and Folklife Museum. Please dm me for details. Thank you.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Some of us including historians and practitioners in the Memphis Hoodoo History collective have been sitting on a secret. Can’t wait for you to see…

https://t.co/25hGZCg1RU

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Label that we recovered in the basement of A. Schwab on Beale Street

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

From our upcoming Beale Street spiritual history museum. Donated by artist historian Carolyn Morrow Long.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Does anyone remember Ann Howard Supplies? They operated out of Freeport NY. They sold something they described as ‘Master Color Bags’. Possibly late 70’s or early 80’s era. Finding very little information on them.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

@soulfoodscholar Payne’s and Cozy Corner

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

‘Fieldwork with the Saints’ is a book for those outside the religion. It is for those that fear or don’t understand this much maligned tradition.

Fieldwork with the Saints: An Ethnographic Journey into Santeria in the American South https://t.co/TJ22CzW8h6

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Birthday invitation to Professor William H. Warren’s birthday party. Warren was known as the ‘Beale Street mystic’ in the local press.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

1932 invoice from American Chemical Company on Beale Street.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Some beautiful Memphis historical discoveries this week. Ad for Keystone Labs, manufacturer of Hoodoo inspired curios in the 1940 program of the Cotton Maker's Jubilee.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Rest in power Doctor Champion. The world is a better place because of you.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Product labels from Memphis curio company Lucky Mon-Gol. The prolific number of curio companies in Memphis throughout the years speaks to the effect of Hoodoo as an inspiration for many of these products throughout the city’s history.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

1896 depiction of a 'Voodoo Priestess' in a local Alabama Newspaper.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

@IlluminateurO @michaelmhughes In fact there is a lodge named for him and you can see his photo on the banner.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Lt. George Washington Lee, civil rights leader and Beale Street politician that once infiltrated a group of gold hunters hiring spiritual workers off Beale to locate buried gold along the Mississippi.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

@michaelmhughes @IlluminateurO He was a member of the Elks Association on Beale and frequently wore a fez from his lodge.

[Tony Kail @memphishoodoo]

Some more items from Skippy Candle https://t.co/xFgy0trWYy