Alabama Humanities Foundation Road Scholar Alan Brown will present “Curses, Conjure and John the Conqueror: Folk Magic in Alabama" on Oct. 16, 2007, at 6:30 p.m. at the Daphne Public Library.

In his presentation, Brown explains the terminology of hoodoo, a distinctly southern form of folk magic. According to Brown, this hoodoo has its origins in West Africa and is heavily influenced by blues singers.

Brown will examine the impact that hoodoo has had on the folkways and oral literature of Alabama. By the end of the lecture, the audience will have become familiar with folk remedies and hoodoo doctors who still practice in Alabama. Brown will bring along samples of herbal remedies used by “root doctors” in Alabama for generations. He will also share accounts of people who claim to have been “cunjered” by their enemies.

Brown is a professor of English at the University of West Alabama. He received a bachelor’s in English from Millikin University, his master’s in American Literature from Southern Illinois University, his master’s in Educational Administration from the University of Illinois and his doctorate in Rhetoric from Illinois State University.

Brown has published and lectured extensively in the field of American Literature. He has published articles on authors such as Ernest Hemingway, James Michener, Edgar Allan Poe, Eudora Welty and Richard Wright. He has also taught several special summer seminars for the Alabama Humanities Foundation, including “The History and Literature of Racism” (1988); “Female Gothic: The Short Fiction of Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Conner, and Eudora Welty” (1992); “Folklore: A Mirror of our Culture” (1996); “Teaching the Fantasy Novel” (2004); and “Teaching Science Fiction” (2006).

Brown has also published two literary tour guides: “Literary Levees New Orleans” (1997) and “Literary Landscapes of Chicago” (2004).