Take Back What the Devil Stole - by Onaje X O Woodbine (Paperback)

About the Book

Ms. Donna Haskins is an African American woman who wrestles with structural inequity in the streets of Boston by inhabiting an alternate dimension she refers to as the "spirit realm." Both ethnographic and personal, Onaje X. O. Woodbine's portrait of her spiritual life sheds new light on the lived religion of the dispossessed.

Book Synopsis

Ms. Donna Haskins is an African American woman who wrestles with structural inequity in the streets of Boston by inhabiting an alternate dimension she refers to as the "spirit realm." In this other place, she is prepared by the Holy Spirit to challenge the restrictions placed upon Black female bodies in the United States. Growing into her spiritual gifts of astral flight and time travel, Donna meets the spirits of enslaved Africans, conducts spiritual warfare against sexual predators, and tends to the souls of murdered Black children whose ghosts haunt the inner city.

Take Back What the Devil Stole centers Donna's encounters with the supernatural to offer a powerful narrative of how one woman seeks to reclaim her power from a lifetime of social violence. Both ethnographic and personal, Onaje X. O. Woodbine's portrait of her spiritual life sheds new light on the complexities of Black women's religious participation and the lived religion of the dispossessed. Woodbine explores Donna's religious creativity and her sense of multireligious belonging as she blends together Catholic, Afro-Caribbean, and Black Baptist traditions. Through the gripping story of one local prophet, this book offers a deeply original account of the religious experiences of Black women in contemporary America: their bodies, their haunted landscapes, and their spiritual worlds.

Review Quotes

Take Back What the Devil Stole is a well-told and painfully honest story of Black womanhood in the United States. Although not representative of the totality of the Black experience, Woodbine's presentation of Donna Haskins's account of the complexities of gender, race, and class paints a vivid portrait of the challenges facing urban communities in this country. An unquestionable strength of this project is Woodbine's ability to envelop the reader in Donna's journey from powerlessness to fully empowered. In addition, the author's careful but intentional use of thick description provides a rather intimate read, making the text uniquely captivating.--Dara Coleby Delgdao "Religion"

[An] inspiring story.--Jon M. Sweeney "Spirituality & Practice"

[This] book is a powerful argument for the importance of the lived religion of "everyday" people.--Alexandria Griffin "Reading Religion"

A distinctive blend of reportage, personal memoir, and ethnographic scholarship rendered in elegant prose, the book is not only a fascinating portrait of a resilient person, but an examination of what American society has inflicted on Black women for generations and how they have used religion to get through it.-- "Boston Magazine"

A searing story of the darkness that haunts so many in America's cities and a needed reminder that Black souls as well as Black bodies are under assault there. But out of the smoke and fire emerges a magical character who just so happens to be real--a victim of all the evils America has to offer who shape-shifts before our eyes into a mystic and prophetess who somehow manages to steal back her own life. Like Karen McCarthy Brown's Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, this study of an impossibly ordinary life grabs you and refuses to let go, even as it offers new insights into a hidden spiritual world.--Stephen Prothero, author of Why Liberals Win (Even When They Lose Elections): How America's Raucous, Nasty, and Mean "Culture Wars" Make for a More Inclusive Nation

A stirring ethnography of a Boston woman who claims to have spiritual gifts.-- "Publishers Weekly"

Along with its moving prose, the greatest strength of Take Back What the Devil Stole is how successful it is at achieving the author's goal of telling a story from its subject's perspective.--Jeffrey E. Anderson, University of Louisiana Monroe "Nova Religio"

An inherently fascinating, exceptionally well written, thoughtful and thought-provoking read.-- "Midwest Book Review"

Having met Ms. Donna in person, I can attest to the incredible power of her gift. The temperature in the room changes when she enters, and here Onaje X. O. Woodbine skillfully captures her essence while treating the reader to a thrilling, heartbreaking story of a Black woman's hard-earned survival. Many of us have had a Ms. Donna in our lives; this book serves as a fitting tribute to the Black women who have crafted a beautiful existence out of rejected stone. Woodbine's masterpiece reminds us that, even in the face of the most extreme trauma, transformation is possible. This book is required reading for a broken world, and Ms. Donna is one of the most compelling characters I've ever encountered.--André Holland, acclaimed Broadway and film actor and producer

Layered, powerful, personal, nuanced, and deeply researched, the book tracks Haskins's violent childhood, her encounter with the Holy Spirit, and her experiences as a traveler in the spirit realms, warring against "the ghosts of American power."--Nina MacLaughlin "Boston Globe"

Onaje Woodbine has crafted a compelling--gripping--story exploring the everyday spiritual world of a remarkable woman. As he takes us with him into this spiritual world, we see the big structural issues that shape urban poverty and racism through her life, and we also see the interweaving of religious traditions that constitute the lived religious power of this woman. This is urban ethnography, religious biography, and masterful storytelling at its best.--Nancy T. Ammerman, author of Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life

Onaje X. O. Woodbine's book about a Black woman's life is a model of ethnographic work that centers the voice of its subject. . . It's a compelling story because it is simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary.--Elizabeth Palmer "The Christian Century"

Woodbine's work is beautiful and compelling. The strengths of the book are its ethnographic intelligence, its attention to an unexamined area of Black religious experience and social location. Take Back What the Devil Stole is an exceptional contribution to the scholarship on lived religion as well as Black women's multireligious belonging. A notable contribution is Woodbine's adeptness at maintaining Donna Haskins's control of her narrative and her multidimensional religious worldview. Drawing on womanist thought, Woodbine privileges Haskins's voice throughout, and, as such, his engagement with lived religion maintains its focus on the practitioner and practice.--Phillis Isabella Sheppard, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Vanderbilt University

About the Author

Onaje X. O. Woodbine is assistant professor of philosophy and religion at American University. He is the author of Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball (Columbia, 2016) and coproducer of a forthcoming documentary film on sacred space in New York City playground basketball, Hallowed Ground & Cracked Concrete.