Wizard

The body of Griffin's Wizard combines several incarnations of wood, from hydropathically molded roots (as in the head), to pine bark, milled planks, and plywood. "Wizard" is another name here for root doctor—the traditional conjureman—but the wizard's added, unique, and con- temporary efficacy lies in its leaching of the historical toxic hatred and secrecy of the Klansman, the oppressive and spiritually oppressed white conjurer. (The form and color of Klan robes were based in part upon widespread white assumption of preternatural Negro fears of "haints" and ghosts.) —Paul Arnett