Sleightism: A Sleight-of-Hand and Folk Magic Lecture and Presentation by Gruff Webb

About this event

SLEIGHTISM is an immersive workshop in illusion literacy and creative critical thinking. Through video, live demonstration, discussion, and hands-on exercises, students learn the principles of sleight of hand and object manipulation while examining how attention, perception, assumption, and deception shape what we believe we see.

Gruff Webb is a Jamaican American folk magician and performance artist whose work explores the intimate space between illusion, storytelling, and spiritual tradition. A quiet worker of small wonders, he performs in candlelit bars, roadside chapels, and other close-held spaces where audiences gather to share in moments of mystery and connection.

Webb is also an independent scholar focused on the history of Black magic, folklore, and diasporic spiritual practices. His research and performances draw from ancestral knowledge, ritual, and the enduring figure of the trickster as both cultural force and storyteller.