Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti by Maya Deren

I have owned this book by Maya Deren since my undergrad when I was introduced to it during my studies at the African New World Studies program at Florida International University. I realize now that my fascination with this book was because it presented Haitian Voodou in such a scientific way that it gave it validity. It finally made Voodou something worth studying replacing my naive knowledge of Voodou at the time as some Haitian superstition that even my mom, born and raised in Haiti wanted me to avoid. After reading Deren’s book, I also read Zora Neale Hurston’s “Tell My Horse: Voodou and Life in Haiti and Jamaica,” and Katherine Dunham’s “Island Possessed.” I have returned to these books as they have become helpful tools in helping me visualize one of the magical realist dream sequence scene in “Caroline’s Wedding.”