The Only Witches’ Brew Here Is the Beer

Witches of Bushwick Is a Social and Creative Group in Brooklyn



On a frigid evening in early January, 20-something hipster women of a boyish sartorial bent filled the Tandem Bar in outer Bushwick, Brooklyn, tall Narragansett beer cans in tow, sporting lots of arm-sleeve tattoos, knit stocking caps and their fair share of Theda Bara-esque kohl-rimmed eyes and blood-red lips. Several of them wore black football jerseys whose backs read “WITCHES 13.” (The number required for a coven.)

This was the latest monthly party put on by Witches of Bushwick, an 18-month-old social and creative network of young neighborhood women (and, to a lesser extent, their male and transgender friends) who have co-opted some of the more accessible ideas of witchcraft — female bonding, creative enrichment, being in touch with a higher spiritual realm — while eschewing its Elvira-like Halloween clichés. Its monthly parties draw crowds of nearly 200, and their Facebook and Instagram followers are approaching a combined 4,000.

“This is a bunch of young women empowering themselves in a world that’s tried to make them feel unempowered,” said an Australian woman, 29, who goes by the name Ms. Fitz and said she was a stylist and art director for performers, including Peaches and Narcissister. Ms. Fitz was wearing Amy Winehouse eyeliner and hair tied up in a fat pink bow, reminiscent of Madonna circa 1982. “I practice witchcraft in my own way,” she said. “I meditate over a candle on what I want from the universe, and if the universe is ready to deliver it, it’ll come faster that way.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/fashion/Witches-of-Bushwick-Brooklyn.html