Vodou Priest & Visual Artist Houngan Gran Bwa performs Veve Ritual

"Vévé" is a Haitian Vodou symbol, which is drawn during rituals to act as a beacon for the "Loa," which are often referred to as spirits, but which many Vodou practitioners call "aspects of God."

Here, the Vévé Ritual is being led by Houngan Gram Bwa, a Vodou priest and visual artist born in Haiti, who has lived in Brooklyn since the 1980's.

Houngan Gran Bwa performed this ceremony today at Union Theological Seminary, as part of the NEH Summer Institute called "Religious Worlds of New York: Teaching the Everyday Life of Religious Diversity." Funded by NEH, and led by The Interfaith Center of New York, the Institute has gathered twenty-five K-12 teachers from around the USA, to learn about teaching religious diversity.

Other Yoruba and Vodou leaders present at this event suggested it might be the first time such a ceremony has been performed on a University campus.

For more info see http://www.religiousworldsnyc.org/.