A Critical Commentary on Cozette Body, Black Folklore, Spirituality and Call & Response
Negro folklore is not a thing of the past. It is still in the making. Its great variety shows the adaptability of the black man: nothing is too old or too new, domestic, or foreign, high, or low for his use. God and devil are paired... - Zora Neale Hurston (2009, pg.18)
INTRODUCTION
When considering a subject for my critical commentary I have considered unpacking my own small business COZETTE BODY as it relates to its physical and perennial form. A handcrafted, oil perfume online shop, patrons are invited to interact with the accompanying poetry as an act of “co-creation” (COZETTE BODY, 2021). The application of therapeutic flowers and herbs for each perfume and poem underscores the reclamation of Black generational plant knowledge and uses for medicine and spiritual practices. Historical works from Black American writers and cultural anthropologists like Zora Neale Hurston’s Every Tongue Gotta Confess: Negro Folktales from the Gulf States (2009) and Sterling Stuckey’s Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America (1987) bring into focus Black oral histories as a means of culture making and preservation. According to Professor of Anthropology Heather Paxson, “As a meaning-making practice, ‘culture’ is viewed by anthropologists as a way of making sense of, adapting to – and sometimes, resisting – economic, political, and other structural conditions” (shass.mit.edu, 2022). Product Designer, Zeiri Lantigua and I collaborated to produce tarot cards, poem cards, scrolls and product boxes that would necessitate the addressee’s participation visually, orally, and manually. Harkening to the Black tradition of call and response found in both Black folklore and spirituals, COZETTE BODY acts as a kind of facilitation of culture remaking and reimagining. In an effort to critique the utility of this creative endeavour, I will be exploring Cozette Body’s merging of poetry with herbal oils and perfumes. By examining the harmony of this merging, I will consider how the poetry’s attention to tradition, tense, intertextuality, and each boxes’ overall affordances informs my current work in progress for both the Made Project and ultimately the Major Project.
A collection of obituaries, letters, and familial keepsakes, my Made Project culminates into an almost serendipitous extension of my Major Project. A ghost and ancestor of a Black American character in my screenplay will make up one of these obituaries. A former slave and an almost omnipresent character, Purple’s connection to and song for the weeping willow tree will be weaved throughout both projects. Purple’s obituary and song lyrics indeed can represent Cozette Body’s relationship to poetry, communal mysticism, and the African Indigenous connection to the land.
COZETTTE BODY
Created out of a necessity to personally remedy the exorbitant prices of perfume and a desire to subvert the impersonal and frantic nature of consumption, three signature oil perfumes were divined. Later two bath & body oils were also introduced, one with white willow bark as a signature herb. Wilde, Zeiri and Polly Gray – also known as Cozette’s Three – each have a poem that evokes the spiritual uses of the herbs included. In this way, the tone of the poem is exhortative.
Figure 1 & 2: Poem Photocard Wilde with excerpt from Gates Overwhelmed by Tracy Cozette Moore (Design by Zeiri Lantigua for COZETTE BODY)
The addressee is not just met with a romantic display of the overall box but an invitation to become the speaker by reciting the poems and herbal uses. Each box includes one perfume, one emerald green bag/perfume protector, one poem card, one thank you card in the form of a tarot card, intuitively selected herbs sprinkled about and two incense sticks (also intuitively selected).
Figures 3, 4, 5, & 6: Tarot Cards printed via Canva in (Design by Zeiri Lantigua for COZETTE BODY)
The back of each tarot card reads “Your purchase is an act of reciprocity. Thank you for co- creating and reveling with me. Love, Tracy” (COZETTE BODY, 2021). The tarot cards paired with the poem cards set both an aesthetic and sensory expectation before the product box is opened. The product box itself contains the necessary directions and storage instructions. On the right of box there is a poem titled Green Jean in which tribute is paid to the endurance of ancestral facial resemblance.
Wish she saw her mother’s skin as heaven’s tease rendition of the galaxy...
Space’s ceiling in Judy’s cheeks. God’s finger aligning the Moon somewhere in between.
I look just like my mother. (COZETTE BODY, 2021)
These line breaks against the backdrop of a matte, black box compounds the prevailing reverence for (meta)physical darkness and the transcendental experience of ancestral veneration. By reminding the speaker/addressee that they are interacting with ongoing culture making, they become active participants. Not only does the oil become theirs’ but patrons are given a glimpse into Black spiritualism where biblical verse or allusion and enduring West African religion often converge.
When one bears in mind that slave folklore was not created to be transcribed or even heard by whites, one must conclude that what was eventually transcribed is probably just a small portion of that which died on the night air or continues to live, undetected by scholars, in the folk memory. (Stuckey, 1987, pg.9)
Stuckey speaks to the secrecy of Black folklore by evoking the “night air” (Stuckey, 1987) and its safe facilitation of African legend still prevailing in the New World. Black folk memory in all its forms (negro spirituals, spells, herbal medicines) still persists as act of preservation and an invitation to respond and identify what was lost and systematically eradicated. It is to say that Black storytelling in this way is a project being constantly made through its recording and its intracommunal sharing.
Displaying poetry and creative intentions on the product box itself perpetuates Cozette Body’s aim to slow down the process of buying and consuming and gently nudge patrons to - at the very least - ponder on agricultural commodification. “Reminding you of your place as a beneficiary of Earth’s unmerited favor.” (COZETTE BODY, 2021) is a kind of nod to the land’s natural remedies that should be easily accessible to everyone. Set at a reasonable price, patrons are able to experience the perfume oils and poems without breaking the bank.
Figure 7: Product box for oil perfume and bath & body oil. (Design collaboration w/ Zeiri Lantigua for COZETTE BODY)
The choice to use the color black as the prevailing backdrop (and branding) is an intentional choice to represent secrecy, subversion, and the denial of the color white as pure and preferential.
Bath & body oil Wynter contains white willow bark, eucalyptus, rose, cedarwood, myrrh and juniper berry. Purple, the ghostly character from both my Made and Major projects, has a connection to the white willow tree on her former plantation. The white willow tree is both a dominant tree in the coastal American South and a spiritual symbol of clairvoyance, spiritual and physical protection, healing, and the Moon. Both Purple’s obituary and her song “There by the willow tree, there you’ll find me. Wading and waiting. Wading and waiting” (Moore, 2024) can be seen as another act of cultural remaking, as the death of slaves was not individually documented for remembrance. Because of the compounding absences of slave folklore and slave records, Purple’s obituary reconceptualizes this loss by documenting a fictional, supernatural being who can act as both legend and historical context. The weeping willow tree, found by streams and rivers, reintroduces Cozette Body’s water motif and subtle acknowledgement of the African deities of both rivers and oceans, Oshun and Yemaya (see Figures 4, 6 and 6). Purple’s song, making reference to the “African American jubilee song...created and first sung by enslaved Blacks” (Uitti, 2023), “Wade in the Water” reasserts the existence of Black oral continuity. As white willow bark in Wynter’s oil and poetic scroll invokes protection for the addressee (“Wade in the Water” was a song used to warn escaping slaves to get in the water to avoid detection) its intertextuality links Cozette Body to my collection of obituaries and familial keepsakes, and my full-length screenplay for the major project.
Figure 8: Wynter bath & body oil. (Courtesy of Zeiri Lantigua for COZETTE BODY)
Most of the poems for COZETTE BODY utilizes second- and third-person narration to support the collaborative nature of each box. The narrative tense of the poetry places the reader in the poem as both the observer and the activator. It lets the patron in on a hidden message that is both personally directive and expressive, but communally synthesizing. Instructions and directions found in negro spirituals and Black folklore linked lost family and community members to one another past the physic torment of the plantation. This blend of biblical literary allusion and “African cultural patterns” became “common property of the community” (Stuckey, 1987, pg.9).
BLACK FOLKLORE AND CALL & RESPONSE
The origins of negro spirituals can be traced to the plantations of the Deep South in secret meetings between enslaved Africans (Library of Congress, 2015). These songs, a mixture of African legend and Christian biblical retelling enabled communal interaction and information dissemination necessary for survival and escape. As mentioned earlier, throughout the 20th century, Black cultural historiographies were reworked, compiled, and published by Black cultural anthropologists. Zora Neale Hurston’s poetically written manuscript Every Tongue Gotta Confess: Negro Folk-Tales from the Gulf States (2009) opens with a note to the reader from Hurston’s Mules and Men (1990). The quote “Her tongue is all de weapon a woman got” (Hurston, 2009, pg. 26) gives a nod to the biblical scripture “the power of life and death is in the tongue” (The Holy Bible. Proverbs. 18:21). Hurston’s title alludes to the scripture “Every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (The Holy Bible. Philippians. 2:11). The note reasons that Hurston’s title choice is one of irony and a fundamental denial of confession and conversion (Hurston, 2009). By both embracing and rejecting the scripture, Hurston welcomes it back into Black American diasporic memory, feminizes it “in the talking game of her people” where they are “invited to play” (Hurston, 2009, pg.26). The poem Wilde for Cozette Body uses the same kind of biblical intertextuality in the line “treasures stored now revealed” (COZETTE BODY, 2021). Alluding to the book of Isaiah, chapter 45 verse 3, Christian scripture becomes a signifier of communal identification and the refusal to demonize what is dark or inherently Black.
COMMODIFICATION
While COZETTE BODY aims to embody ease and a divestment from mass market production, the acquiring of herbs and flowers remains up for critique. In an effort to be sustainable, oils used are organic and most herbs and flowers are bought locally in New York and through small sellers on Etsy. While ethical and intentional stocking of supplies for Cozette Body persists, it is not always easy (or possible) to confirm the sustainability practices laid out by sellers. In this way, Cozette Body could find itself in conflict with its own commitment to stewarding the land. Patrons are encouraged to save and reuse the bottles, the small velvet bag the perfume bottles come in and product boxes for storage. The poems and scrolls are presented meticulously and evocatively with wax seals that come with the bath & body oils Wynter and Clare. In this way, the addressee might be convinced to keep a personalized and artistically developed (and branded) product.
Figure 9 & 10: Addressee box openings. (Courtesy of customers of COZETTE BODY)
CONCLUSION
Almost in conversation with my own Made Project, COZETTE BODY presents poetry as a function of self-actualization and reimagining. The development of the oil perfumes, the packing of the boxes and the accompanying poetry function to provide a personal and enduring experience of self-care. Cozette Body’s form benevolently invites even those who are not descendants of enslaved Africans to bear witness to a kind of Black historical and literary revival.
Clapping and dancing usually occur in stories with a song that takes the form of a refrain. The refrain is repeated by listeners at a signal from the storyteller. Although it may not involves physical touching of the storyteller, it nonetheless gives the whole exercise an air of celebration. It also adds an air of vivid drama in the whole process of storytelling. (Stuckey, 1987, pg.14)
A part of Cozette Body’s Instagram bio reads “Made with passionate revelry” (COZETTE BODY, 2021) and a mirror emoji is displayed beside it. A baroque design like the one found below in Figure 11 coincidently illustrates Cozette Body’s call and the addressee’s ‘refrain’ (or reflection). Inspired by literary figure Oscar Wilde and fictional tv character Elizabeth “Polly” Gray, Cozette Body also mirrors the intercommunal influences of the Black diasporic experience with literature and film. This ‘made project’ combines the visually dramatic (and provocative) with a corporeal experience to explore the necessity (and function) of memorializing Black folklore and celebrating Black spiritual tradition.
Figure 11: Cozette’s Three oil perfumes. Wilde, Zeiri and Polly Gray (Courtesy of Zeiri Lantigua for COZETTE BODY)
References:
COZETTE BODY. (n.d.). COZETTE BODY. [online] Available at: http://cozettebody.com [Accessed 20 Feb. 2024].
Library of Congress (2015). African American Spirituals. [online] The Library of Congress. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495/.
Moore, T.C. (2024). '77. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. 1.1.3
shass.mit.edu. (2022). MIT SHASS: News - 2022 - On Culture - Meaning-Making Practice - Heather Paxson, Anthropology. [online] Available at: https://shass.mit.edu/news/news- 2022-culture-meaning-making-practice-heather-paxson-anthropology.
Stuckey, S. (1987). Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America. Oxford University Press, USA.
The Holy Bible. New International Version (2012). London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Uitti, J. (2023). Behind the Meaning of the Classic Gospel Song ‘Wade In The Water’. [online] American Songwriter. Available at: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-meaning- of-the-classic-gospel-song-wade-in-the-water/.
Zora Neale Hurston (2009). Every Tongue Got to Confess. New York: Harper Collins. Zora Neale Hurston (2008). Mules and Men. New York: Harper Collins.