Hi, I’m Hess.

It’s a family name. Before me, there were and are others. Before us all, there was Hester, the last woman in my family to be enslaved through chattel slavery in the U.S.

Hester (sometimes called Hess) was born, loved, enslaved, freed, married, mothering, grieving, living, and buried in the same city that most of her descendants were born and raised in, including me.

In a sense, I was predestined to find purpose in the preservation of place, plants, and people.

I am a hoodoo-mother-poet, writer, ethnographer, Delmarva woodlands steward, hunter apprentice, and master naturalist who carries Afro-Chesapeake tradition at the heart of my work.

The expanse of my work rekindles a deep sense of belonging and creativity by allowing my own rootedness as a keeper of the AfroChesapeake experience to serve as a model.

I use the medicine of curiosity and tenderness toward the repressed and unknown to encourage others to reclaim their stories, commit to kindness, reintegrate themselves into the wild, and learn how to become a symbiont with their ancestors, their adored ones, and the more-than-human world.

Understand that this is heavy work (although I do a fantastic job of making it look and sound whimsical).

I do a lot, and I enjoy what I do.

In community and creative ventures, I move as the founder of the Chesapeake Conjure Society (the first Hoodoo Society), an MFA candidate in creative writing, Black cemetery advocate, writer, and an independent folklorist with a concentration on Hoodoo and Black Atlantic Religion in the Chesapeake Bay region.

In my career, I currently serve as a Governor appointed Commissioner for a historical city, a citizen scientist appointee (focusing on environmental legacy through archaeology on sites of enslavement, and culturally responsive climate education) with an Environmental Research Center, a heritage preservationist, and Curator of Black Americana Religion, Spirituality, and Belonging for African American Folklorists magazine, and Descendant Communicator for a historic Afro-Chesapeake / Black Appalachian archeological site.

I came into those roles with several years of experience in communications and storytelling before my purpose pivot.

Portfolio coming soon.

Want to see the magic up-close? Let’s connect.