Digital Hoodoo: Black Women Conjuring Magic In The Metaverse

The metaverse might be marketed as the future, but for Black women, it’s another space that needs reclaiming, remixing, and radical reinvention. As tech giants build virtual worlds where identity, economy, and culture collide, a new vanguard of Black women are bending the digital ether to their will—turning Web3 into a space for liberation, ritual, and resistance.

This is digital hoodoo: a 21st-century conjuring where blockchain meets Black spirituality, and avatars carry the weight of ancestral memory. It’s more than just tech—it’s a reclamation of space, a rewriting of code, and a future where Black creativity isn’t just consumed but owned and protected.

Building Virtual Sanctuaries

Black women have long been architects of culture, and the metaverse is no different. But this time, they’re the ones setting the terms. Take Mary Spio, the mastermind behind CEEK VR, a metaverse platform that gives artists the power to perform and profit in digital spaces without industry gatekeepers controlling their earnings. Or Bianca Jackson, the force behind BrickRose Exchange, a virtual event space designed to cultivate Black creativity and connection beyond physical borders.

Then there’s Iris Nevins, founder of Umba Daima, a creative studio that amplifies Black artists in the NFT space. Nevins’ platform isn’t just about selling digital art—it’s about educating Black creators on the power of blockchain technology, ensuring they’re not left behind in the Web3 revolution. Because in this new reality, knowledge isn’t just power—it’s currency.

Hoodoo, Cyberspace, and the Ancestral Algorithm

The metaverse is often imagined as a lawless digital frontier, but for Black women, the idea of crafting safe spaces in hostile environments isn’t new—it’s ancestral. Hoodoo, an African diasporic spiritual tradition born out of resistance, has always been about using what’s available to transform reality. The digital realm is just another medium.

Black creators are infusing the metaverse with the same sacred practices that have preserved Black culture for centuries. Through VR experiences, NFTs, and digital storytelling, they are creating spaces where history isn’t erased but elevated. Consider the Afronauts NFT project, a collection of digital art that reimagines the lost dreams of Zambia’s 1960s space program through an Afrofuturist lens. Or the way artists like Stacie Ant use augmented reality to tell stories of Black resilience, creating interactive experiences that blur the line between tech and tradition.

This is where digital hoodoo thrives: in the act of conjuring something out of nothing, of bending the rules of space and time, of finding new ways to honor the past while forging a liberated future.

Owning the Magic—And the Marketplace

Despite their influence, Black women still face the same systemic barriers in Web3 that they do in every other industry. According to a study by Digital Undivided, Black women-led startups receive less than 1% of venture capital funding. The metaverse isn’t exempt from this reality.

But Black women are finding ways to break the cycle. Platforms like Black Women Blockchain Council are ensuring that Black women are not just participants but power players in Web3. By offering education, mentorship, and funding opportunities, these initiatives are rewriting the narrative—one blockchain at a time.

Meanwhile, collectives like CyberBaat are using NFTs to create an economy where African and diasporic artists actually own their work, ensuring that Black creativity isn’t just a trend to be exploited but a legacy to be sustained.

The Future is Ours to Code

The metaverse is still in its Wild West phase, which means the rules aren’t set in stone. For Black women, that’s an opportunity—not a warning. From digital activism to decentralized economies, from NFT rituals to VR temples, Black women are proving that Web3 isn’t just about tech—it’s about transformation.

This isn’t just participation. It’s power. It’s digital hoodoo in motion—a spell cast into cyberspace, ensuring that wherever the future takes us, Black women will be there, creating, coding, and conjuring worlds of their own design.