Hoodoo Call to Worship is a one-day gathering in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where we will come together at the river for a community altar, ring shout, baptism, spiritual cleansing and fortification, then gather for a Southern-inspired brunch, Hoodoo Heritage exhibition, and the official unveiling of Hoodoo Heritage Festival 2027.
This is the call before the BIG gathering.
Hoodoo Call to Worship is a full-day spiritual gathering rooted in the ways Black folks have gathered, worshipped, cleansed, eaten, remembered, and fellowshipped for generations.
We’ll begin our morning at the river, where we will come together to build a community altar and prepare the space for worship. Once the altar is built, we’ll gather around it for a traditional ring shout, lifting Spirit through prayer, song, call-and-response, clapping, stomping, and movement.
From the ring shout, we’ll move together to the water. Adults who choose to participate will receive a river baptism, followed by spiritual cleansing and fortification as we make space for renewal, protection, and whatever Spirit is calling us into next.
When the river work is complete, we’ll change clothes and transition from worship into fellowship around the table. Our Hoodoo brunch is inspired by the food and feeling of Black church basements, Homecoming Sundays, repasts, and family gatherings, with a menu centered around dishes like fried catfish, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, greens, cornbread, pound cake, and sweet tea.
After we’ve eaten and fellowshipped, we’ll open the Hoodoo Heritage Exhibition, featuring photography and visual storytelling created to honor the beauty, memory, people, practices, and cultural inheritance of Hoodoo.
And before we leave, we’ll reveal why we called everyone together in the first place.
Guests of Hoodoo Call to Worship will be the first to experience the official unveiling of Hoodoo Heritage Festival 2027, hear what we’re building, and get a first look at what is coming next.
We are coming together to worship. To be washed. To eat. To remember. To fellowship. And to answer the call.
Children are an important part of Hoodoo Call to Worship, and their experience is being designed with the same care and intention as the adult portion of the day. They will begin alongside the full community, helping to build the community altar and participating in the ring shout through song, movement, clapping, stomping, prayer, and call-and-response. We want them to experience these traditions as something they are included in and connected to, not something happening around them.
Children who are participating in baptism will be called to the water first. Their baptism will be handled in an age-appropriate and intentional way, centered on cleansing, blessing, renewal, and spiritual protection. Once their water work is complete, they will transition into the Little Conjurers experience while the adults continue through their baptism and spiritual fortification.
The Little Conjurers portion will borrow from the familiar feeling of Sunday School or Vacation Bible School, but the lesson will be rooted in Black Southern spiritual traditions, ancestors, nature, altars, prayer, Hoodoo, and cultural memory. Children will learn through conversation, storytelling, song, and a hands-on activity designed to help them better understand the traditions they are experiencing throughout the day.
The goal is for children to leave feeling connected to their history, their community, and the spiritual traditions being passed down to them. Once the adult river work is complete, the children will reunite with the full gathering for brunch and fellowship, the Hoodoo Heritage exhibition, and the official Hoodoo Heritage Festival 2027 reveal.
This is not simply a children’s activity. It is an opportunity for the next generation to learn, participate, remember, and carry something forward.
