NPR · 3 hours ago

Magic School Works Magic with Its Young Students

In a suburb of Cape Town, inside a red-brick Victorian mansion, 190 young people ages 10 to 18 spend their Saturdays learning to make the impossible look easy - and in doing so, discover something about themselves that no trick can explain. Founded in 1980 in defiance of apartheid, the College of Magic has always operated on the quiet conviction that wonder is a form of equality: as David Gore puts it, magic is "an art form that can be performed without being wealthy or needing very expensive instruments." For students like 11-year-old Lubelo Mthenjana, who commutes from Makhaza township and practices juggling with his mother's potatoes, the school offers not just sleight of hand but a kind of sanctuary - a place where children who regularly hear gunshots outside their windows can walk onto a stage, flash a bright smile, and hold a room in the palm of their hand. The school recently held a memorial for a 22-year-old former student and volunteer teacher shot and killed near his home, a reminder that the world these children navigate is not softened by their talent. Yet the unicyclists keep circling the car park in the drizzle, the puppets keep coming to life upstairs, and Lubelo - first-place winner, bow tie adjusted - runs straight into his mother's arms before heading home to practice something new.