Join Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival for a screening of the 1998 witchcraft classic, Practical Magic, followed by a lively panel discussion amongst magical practitioners and folklorists exploring the film's themes and impact.

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About The Film:
In a small Massachusetts town, the Owens family have been regarded with suspicion for over three centuries due to their ancestor Maria Owens, who survived an attempted execution for witchcraft. Heartbroken when the father of her unborn child never returned to her, Maria cast a spell to prevent herself from ever falling in love again. The spell developed into a curse upon Maria's descendants, dooming any man an Owens woman loves.

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About the Panelists:

Jesse Hathaway Diaz (he/him/they/them) is a folklorist, artist, performer and independent scholar with a Masters in Performance Studies from NYU. With initiations in several forms of witchcraft from Europe and the Americas, he is also a lifelong student of Mexican curanderismo, an initiated priest of Obatalá in the Lucumí Orisha tradition, and a Tatá Quimbanda. He co-hosts an occult themed podcast called ‘Radio Free Golgotha’, and edits the ‘Folk Necromancy in Transmission’ imprint through Revelore Press. For the better part of two decades, he has been involved with Theatre Group Dzieci, a New York based experimental theatre ensemble which explores theatre and ritual as a way, blending service with self-exploration and performance. Dividing his time between the Bronx and a farm in the Hudson Valley, his artistic and written work navigate the world-as-magic through exploring orality and transmission, decolonialism, ritual theory and praxis, herbalism and healing modalities through private study, apprenticeship, and community involvement. You can find his artistic and written work at www.jessehathawaydiaz.com and his wares at www.signthepact.com

 

Marshall WSL is a queer folkloric and traditional witch living in Texas. Author of Cunning Words: a Grimoire of Tales and Magic and The Red Mother as well as the cohost of Southern Bramble: a Podcast of Crooked Ways. Marshall has contributed to multiple publications such as Patheos Pagan, Witchology, and Auxiliary magazine. You can find Marshall at @witchofsouthernlight on Instagram and links to his work at https://linktr.ee/WitchofSouthernLight

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Loretta "Loo" Ledesma - The Death Witch, Loo, founder of The Mile High Conjure Gala and conjuror behind The Death Witch is a Santa Muerte Devotee and practitioner of Conjure. She cultivates a comfortable relationship with spirits of many sorts. Loo approaches the work from the Conjure tradition and a close open relationship with the dead. Loretta walks her spiritual path comfortably with less freely talked about workings and brings deep knowledge and experience to educational conversations and her goods. She is a legacy student of Conjure Man Professor Charles Porterfield. She has learned from and sits at the table with some of the most sought-after teachers and elders in Conjure. You can find more of Loretta’s work at thedeathwitch.black and follow along on Instagram @thedeathwitch.

 

Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic. His magical specialities are the dead (folk necromancy), divination (geomancy) and the grimoires.  His published works include Nazarth: Pillars of Gladness (2022), An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke (2020) with Phil Legard, The Starry Rubric (2012), A Book of the Magi: Lore, Prayers, and Spellcraft of the Three Holy Kings (2018) and several chapbooks as well as essays in collections by Three Hands Press, Hadean Press and academic presses such as Palgrave Macmillan. He co-hosts the podcast Radio Free Golgotha, and is a founding editor of Revelore Press’ Folk Necromancy in Transmission series. Dr Cummins’ work, classes, and services can be found at www.alexandercummins.com​

 

Sarah Jezebel Wood is an artist, chandler, and sorceress with a penchant for ceremonial magic(k), whose work explores the ephemeral nature of the liminalities of life and death through the interactions of time, place, objects, and moments.  Her current work focuses through the lens of her camera or that of a bubbling pot of hot wax. Sarah has worked  with such artists as Alex & Allyson Grey at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors as one of the original inhabitants of CoSM upstate where she was performer, producer, and financial officer. In 2016 Sarah wrote and  produced SVB ROSA, a multidisciplinary performance exploring the initiatory path in Brooklyn, NY with her troupe LUNARIS. Recently she  has launched her own brand of intentionally crafted candles at Lovi Artes. www.loviartes.com