Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani
Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani is a native New Orleanian writer, educator, and Spiritual Disruptor whose work spans literature, theater, and Afrikan Traditional Spirituality. Academically, she earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans in the Fall of 2008. Her diverse literary background is reflected in numerous publications, including The Crab Orchard Review, Dark Eros, Essence Magazine, Chicken Bones: A Literary Journal, Family Portraits, and Women’s Issues and Feminism in the 21st Century.
As a highly recognized playwright, Bomani co-wrote and directed the play Brown Blood Black Womb, and is the author of Crows Feet, Bourbon, Men of the AmonRa Society, and Hair Anthem. She was honored with the Southern Black Theatre Festival’s 2012–2013 Playwright of the Year Award for her celebrated work, Spring Chickens.
In her spiritual life, Bomani is a respected practitioner, identified as an 8th Generation Egun Medium and a Priestess of OYA in the Yoruba system of spirituality, where she is divinely addressed as Iyanifa Faniyi Aboyade Omobola Bomani. She channeled this deep ancestral knowledge as the former Editor-In-Chief of the culture and Afrikan Traditional Spirituality E-Zine, Oya N'Soro. Her professional honors include being a Critical Mass 8 Literary Award Winner and a KAT Artist Residency recipient.
She is the author of Conjuring the Calabash: Empowering Women with Hoodoo Spells and Magick, a foundational guide celebrating the divine feminine, protective conjure, and sacred space-holding, as well as Hoodoo Saints and Root Warriors: Stories and Magick for Liberation, a powerful collection that honors ancestral icons, resistance movements, and the enduring spiritual blueprint of folk magic as a tool for true freedom.
Bomani currently resides in Louisiana. Her current creative focus includes developing a Middle-Grade series designed to promote the inclusiveness of special needs superheroines and heroes in literature, as well as a collection of poetry inspired by Tarot titled Dead Man Stew. Additionally, she hosts the podcast FishHeadsinRedGravy, a platform dedicated to celebrating marginalized people within the esoteric and occult world.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83x6Gn1/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83xkeob/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP839ouPE/