Meet Kenya T Coviak

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kenya T Coviak. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kenya T , so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?

I’ve been alone all my life. Even in a crowd of people, I’ve always felt alone. This comes from being raised up in a profound sense of loneliness and exclusionary solitude from my birth family, and being different from my peers. While my foster family is a treasure I will always love, the fact of the matter is the majority of them did not like me. And toward the ends of my childhood, it was very apparent that I was too unlike the rest of that family. This led to me becoming more and more introverted, and developing unusual interests and pursuits of scholarship.

As I progress through school and my career, and interest, I wound up following the advice of my teachers and studied things that appeal to me but not to the society is a whole. Folklore, magic, hanging out with people who walked paths of mysticism were all the things I did that set me apart. And in those spaces I was often the only person who look like me.

In some cases, I was the only person in the cousin that was the complexion of the freshly baked cookie, while the others resembled buttermilk. In other places, I was the only person in the room who had a lighter complexion that resembled a pecan sandi while everyone else was chocolate ice cream. That’s a gentle way of saying that because of the color of my skin, even when I’m inside the group I may be outside the group. Because there is a large amount of colorism even within the fba, or African American Diasporic communities.

In college, and Evangelical Christian college by the way, I was the only one there who was actually in a Muslim based cult that practice astral projection and mysticism, and I wrote my paper on a neoPlatonic understanding of Christianity, while still maintaining that I was a witch and a practitioner. Needless to say, the Muslim based cult was actually an American nationalistic group that was formed during the 1930s and not traditional islam. Therefore you can see how the two things could exist simultaneously. Although there was some conflict.

Further along in my life I wound up being the only witch in the room. In many places, that word will get you hurt. I was a witch in school all through my life. I was a witch in middle school. I was a witch in grade school. I was a witch in high school. I was a witch in college. I was a witch in the cult. I’ve been a witch forever.

Yet, that word which means something different for me than it will for others. Because at the end of the day, the word for what I am did not survive the Middle Passage. And I maintain that. I believe that there is a word for what I am that was in the mouths of that my ancestors and that that title has not been rediscovered yet. People can use the word root worker, spirit bound or Spirit bother, or all kinds of things. But in general, when you are a worker in certain communities it’s because you were taught that. But I have found that the things I do, most of them have nothing to do with what can be taught. They come from the blood. They come from the breath. They come from the bones. And that is not something you can find in a book. And I use it sparingly. Because it’s important and it’s an ancestral gift. As also other responsibility. And I am the only one that can carry that in the room as well.

Having experienced all the things I’ve just shared with you prepared me to be able to stand on my own two feet in a room without having to look out and find someone who looks like me in order to justify my presence. I only have to stand and hold the ground beneath my feet to be enough. There are times I have faltered. There are times when I’ve withdrawn when it’s just not rational to stay. But more often than not I’ve held my ground and not held my tongue when it was time to speak. In others, I betrayed myself and pretended to get along with people for the greater good. Secretly this liking people but working with them to do something for the communities that I thought was needed. I only found sadness in this favor from that. And I betrayed myself awfully. Which is why I no longer do that now. Because that wasn’t me.

By maturing and getting older still, I found that I no longer have to look around to find someone that looks at me to justify my presence in the room. I only have to hold the ground under my feet. I only have to speak that which is in my heart and what I feel to be true and necessary at that time. And that’s not always kind. However, I am more than halfway toward becoming an ancestor of somebody myself one day. Or at least I will become someone’s beloved or remember dead. So a decision in my soul was made and I decided to be worthy of that. And part of that is being able to hold my head high and not swallow my own heart when I’m alone in the company of those who may not like me because I don’t look like them. And that’s how I can be in the room as the only one that looks like me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Well, according to my bio I’m a multifaceted practitioner and educator in the realm of folkloric herbalism and magical arts, based in Michigan. I have a podcast called “My Magical Cottagecore Life”, several books on Amazon.

I do love running festivals. At one point I was the local coordinator for the Pagan pride project in Metro Detroit. With my local co-coordinator, and a Michigan corporation called Pagan Pride Detroit Inc., I was able to be a part of facilitating wonderful memories and connections for the Metro Detroit area for several years. We were able to bring in teachers for hundreds of classes. They were vendors of every sort. And attendees from every Walk of Life came together to enjoy those moments. Later, I worked with creating the all face alliance with several like-minded people of differing faiths. We had the All hands together harvest festival for a few years. And that also had great success.

But the crown jewels in all of the festivals I was able to run, whether they be death festivals, literary festivals, or doula festivals, were the Detroit Conjure and Folk Magic Festival and the Wandering Goddess Festival Retreat. There may be one or two festivals in me yet, we’ll have to see what happens.

I’m working on several projects. However one of my favorite is my collection of spell card decks called the Minaudière de Sorcière. It’s a whole nod to Detroit’s heritage, and I’m kinda like loosely giving love to Mere. It’s a series of collectible spells carried in discreet tin boxes.

I am also the liaison for the Michigan Witches Ball and Bazaar. Next year we are having it in Clinton Township, MI. My husband and I took over a few years ago, and then boom, pandemic. But we are rebuilding.

The latest books are on Amazon and Spiral Moon Media. My latest titles are “Cup and Cauldron: A Magical Companion”, and “Scythe and Seed:An Autumnal Cookbook”.
I have older titles on MagCloud that I’ve recently transferred to Amazon. I also have a few more titles coming out before Yule.

I’ve also got some contributing Writer credits for Peppermint and Sage Magazine”, “PBN News Network”
, “The Good Witch’s Guide” by Shawn Robbins and Charity Bedell, “The Heart of the Elder: Good Elders and Their Influence” by Lillith ThreeFeathers and Joy Marie Wedmedyk, and “Llewellyn’s Complete Book of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape of Magic, Mystery, and Tradition” by Cory Thomas Hutcheson.

I’ve been writing a looooong time. In college, I was Literary Editor for “AMKA: Awake!” in the W.E.B. DuBois Honors Program at Highland Park Community College, an HBCU. I also did coverage of the pandemic demonstrations and police actions a few years back. There’s a series of interviews with those who were injured at the demonstrations, on one of my PBN News Channel on YouTube channels, that I’m proud of doing.

I also greatly enjoy presenting workshops and lectures. It’s one of the fun things about walking the path that I do. I walk the path of the Divine Fool and just recently began to appreciate the good side of that and what that means. I’m the person in the room that will laugh at the end opportune moment, in order for you to see more clearly what is actually happening. I’m the person that says the emperor has no clothes while possibly giving him a hot foot. But fundamentally I love teaching through laughter and curiosity. I try to get people to ask questions and I hopefully make an impact on them that will last. Sometimes the topic isn’t funny at all, but even there we can find a moment of understanding. Because most humor is rooted in pain, usually that of others, it is impactful. Only when it’s called for though. What the responsibility of laughter, comes the responsibility of compassion. That’s one of the reasons I wound up taking trainings in suicide prevention, as well as mental health first aid. Believe it or not, I’m actually clergy, y’all.

You can catch my presentations upcoming in the new year at Convocation in 2025 in michigan, and at WitchCon in 2025. And for those who know the different parts of the magical community in the midwest, this may seem like a weird mix. But people who know me know that I do not allow myself to engage in foolishness. Therefore I will put it this way, politics have no bearing on me bringing sharing what I’ve learned and my gifted knowledge to others.

Is my honor to be able to present a program on Magical Witchy World Channel every month, as well. The long name is Explorations in Curious Herbalism. I just called a Curious Herbalism herbalism for short.

I also present a series on folkloric herbalism through Spiral Moon Media.
That one’s pretty intense and pretty heavy so people have to come in knowing that they’re going to be there for at least 3 hours.

The decks can be found at:
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/minaudi%C3%A8re-de-sorci%C3%A8re-rose

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I found this very important to have an understanding of the cycles of growth and of decay in nature. More specifically, you should be familiar with agricultural cycles. And learning how the world works as far as the farmer, the gatherer, the Hunter, and the Fisher man, you’ll be more in tune with your own cycles.

The next thing is curiosity. Be willing to look into what you don’t understand, that’s very important. Simply being told that drawing a circle is necessary in certain things is one thing. But understanding why they’re telling you that is even more important. And in that curiosity lies that seed of seeking that you will need in order to be fully understanding of what it is you think you believe at that time. Because it will change. Spiritual maturity is a thing and it only is fed by curiosity.

Lastly, and appreciation for silence and solitude. Sometimes it’s not your time to speak. Sometimes it’s better to listen because you not learning anything if your mouth is open.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

In the last year, I lost my final parent. I had four. My mother, my father, my mama, and my daddy were the company of caretakers that I had. However, it was my mom and my daddy that actually were my parenting people. My mother and father were in and out of my life when I was a child and my mother was very much in my life after my late 20’s.

Through going through the process of dealing with her estate, and not only face the ins and outs of mortality and of having to really look at the relationships that I have with not just family but how I view family, I also had to understand that in myself I am my biggest enemy when it comes to legacy. There are so many gifts that the Creator gave me and I have been sitting on them for a very long time because of what I felt other people would think. At the end of the day, the only thing we are promised is a hole in the ground or a mound of ashes, or a splash in the waters or a place of unknown destination. Knowing this, and I’m talking about the physical world, it has become even more clear that I wanted to leave a legacy.

and what this did is actually help destroy my spirit of procrastination and my money demons. Because I’ve always procrastinated thinking that it’s just not good enough to release or it’s just not good enough period. There are so many projects and so many things that I could have accomplished had I not let that get in the way.

So now, having Death as my catalyst, I am currently working on releasing all those projects that I have started and never finished. I’ve run multiple festivals and all sorts of projects in colleges, communities, and private spaces. And at the end of the day, so much of it will probably not be traceable and I need to leave a legacy not just for my child but for my Descendants.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-magical-cottagecore-life/id1546761809
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064742060416&mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@magickalwitchyworldtvchannel?si=W6OFt6K2IbW1IDCv
• Other: You can contact me directly regarding engagements and appearances via [email protected].