On May 14th of 2016 my book The Sporting Life: How to Help Yourself with Hoodoo from the Streets to the Sheets, published by Lucky Mojo, premiered at the 9th annual Hoodoo Heritage Festival in Forestville, California. I wrote The Sporting Life throughout the autumn and winter of 2015 in an attempt to bring to back to light the sporting life, the world of hustlers, pimps, prostitutes, gamblers, club and bar owners, and members of the LGBT community and the work they did and do with hoodoo before these works, tricks, and recipes are lost to the sands of time.
BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Enter into the sporting life, the world of prostitutes, pimps, madams, gamblers, bootleggers, and drag queens. From the ritzy clubs, hidden speakeasies, luxurious brothels, and down-on-their-luck dives of old to the seedy massage parlours and back alleys of today, the sporting life has always intersected with the culture of African-American hoodoo, conjure, and rootwork. Now Professor Porterfield takes you into the clandestine milieu of underworld beliefs and secret practices, and shows the impact that the sporting life has on the world of magic and spirituality. With more than 150 practical spells, charms, recipes, and authentic old-style tricks, The Sporting Life pulls back the velvet curtain that has for too long concealed the life, times, and history of the demimonde.
Presenting the magic of the prostitutes of the Bible, the working girls of Storyville and Memphis, the high-stakes bettors, the magnetic madams, the persuasive pimps, the cagey corner dope dealers, and members of oppressed lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender communities of colour — The Sporting Life is sure to startle your senses and thrill your heart. This exhaustively researched book blows open the hidden world of love, lust, vice, and danger that is the sporting life.
TABLE OF CONTENTS - THE SPORTING LIFE:
Dedication 4
Acknowledgement 4
Preface 5
Hoodoo, Conjure, and Rootwork 7
What is the Sporting Life? 8
Slinging Slang 9
Working Girls and Hustling Women
Fancy Ladies, Call Girls, and Hookers 14
Madams and Aunties 18
Spells for Prostitutes and Escorts 20
Flesh Peddlers and Gentlemen of Leisure
Pimps, Loverboys, and Sugar Daddies 26
Bringing Them In and Turning Them Out 30
Spells for Procurers and Panderers 32
Sissy Men and Bull Dagger Women
Boy-Girls, Queers, and Drag Queens 38
You Sure Gotta Prove It On Me 42
Spells for Gay Men and Lesbian Women 44
Gamblers, Runners, and Players
Policy and the Numbers 50
Beating the Odds 54
Spells for Games of Chance and Skill 56
Bootleggers, Traffickers, and Pushers
To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest 62
Keeping The Man Away 66
Spells for Breaking the Rules While Staying Safe 68
Dives, Houses, and Holes
Brothels and Cathouses 74
The Juke Joint 79
Spells for Drawing Trade to an Illegal Business 81
Dressing for the Demimonde
Nice Shoes and the Walking Blues 86
Hide My Eyes 89
Spells for Looking Good and Staying Sharp 92
Bibliography 96
ILLUSTRATIONS
Spiritual Supplies for the sporting life in hoodoo catalogues, 1868 - 2016 13
First Edition 2016
Published by
The Lucky Mojo Curio Company
6632 Covey Road
Forestville, California 95436
www.luckymojo.com
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The Sporting Life:
How to Help Yourself with Hoodoo from the Streets to the Sheets
Professor Porterfield
Night with Me
Professor Charles Porterfield