Public Programs

December 5, 2026
Mana Contemporary Chicago | Suite 502, House of the Lorde (2233 S. Throop St, Chicago IL 60608)
3:00pm – 6:00pm

In conversation with Court Theatre’s forthcoming production of Tituba by Winsome Pinnock, which reclaims the real life historical figure only peripherally explored within Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, we invite you to step into House of the Lorde, a sanctuary and womanist space conceived by artist Jenn Freeman.

Co-designed and facilitated in collaboration with scholar, cultural organizer, and wellness practitioner Pascale Ife Williams, PhD, this program serves as an active site of reclamation, healing, and historical unearthing. During this gathering participants are invited to hold space to honor Tituba along with a vast lineage of ancestral spiritual practitioners whose wisdom was vilified, suppressed, or rewritten.

At the core of the experience, Luisah Teish’s seminal text, Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Magic, will serve as our anchor. Following a collective reading of selected excerpts, Dr. Williams and Freeman will guide participants through a somatic embodiment exercise. Moving beyond Western caricatures, prompts will invite attendees to examine and reshape their own definition of a “witch,” while investigating with care the power, intuition, and medicine of their own inner witch. Join us at House of the Lorde for an evening of shared story and ancestral remembrance.

Rhonda Wheatley, “Power and Energy Amplifier (Increases power and healing energy one receives and/or sends to others)”, 2015, vintage mannequin hand, barnacle cluster, titanium quartz crystals, cholla cactus wood, and acrylic paint.