Being possessed, it turns out, is exhausting work. Just ask Mambo Edeline St. Armand. While popular culture portrays Vodou as full of curses and sticking pins into little dolls, the religion has in fact played a central role in Haitian cultural identity since the country's birth, a result of the New World's first and only successful slave rebellion. Since Brooklyn is home to the largest Haitian population outside of Haiti, we sent Thomas Morton into our own backyard to witness the realities of being possessed by Vodou's multitude of rowdy, rum-thirsty spirits.
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