From leaf selection to the final pull — Bluntly Speaking covers every major method of preparation and consumption across six workshop tracks running throughout the day.
All rolling supplies, papers, wraps, demonstration materials, and tools are provided free with festival admission. Bring your own product. Bring your hands. Bring patience.
July 25th, 2026 · 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM · All sessions hands-on · All Central Time
The day begins with the lighting of the communal fire — a nod to the role of fire in every smoke tradition on earth. Spoken word, intention-setting, and a blessing of the hands that will roll and pack throughout the day. No demonstrations yet. Just breath, fire, and community.
Every perfect smoke starts before the wrap ever touches your hands. Darius opens the day at the very beginning: anatomy of a grinder (2, 3, and 4-piece), kief screen management, hand-breaking vs. ground bud and why both have a place, how grind consistency and grind size directly affect burn rate, airflow, and flavor. Participants grind alongside the instructor at individual stations. You will never look at this step the same way again.
The joint is the most universal form in the world — and most people have never been properly taught. This 90-minute workshop starts at zero: paper composition (rice vs. hemp vs. wood pulp), how paper weight affects draw resistance, the crutch (why it exists, how to fold a roach tip that holds), the spread, the tuck, the lick, and the roll. We advance through pinner joints, standard 1¼ size, King Slims, the dutch tulip, and the cross joint. Everyone rolls at least three joints during the session. Bring your patience — perfection takes practice.
Rest your hands, sip some ital herbal tea, and inspect the rolling tray at your station. Instructors available for informal one-on-one questions. Grinder and paper stations remain open for free practice.
The blunt is a culture unto itself. Camille Osei — whose rolling videos have 4M+ views — spends 90 minutes breaking down everything the internet glosses over. We begin with wrap selection: machine-made cigar wraps (Swisher, Dutch Masters, White Owl), backwoods whole-leaf (the cult choice), and natural fronto/grabba leaf — their moisture content, thickness, burn speed, and flavor contribution to the final smoke. Then: emptying a cigar cleanly without cracking the outer leaf, splitting a backwood without tearing, reconditioning a dry wrap with breath and touch. The fill: pack density, how to distribute product evenly from tip to tip, what "too tight" and "too loose" feel like and how to correct. The seal: saliva chemistry, the pinch-roll technique, and tucking the cap. The dry: why you torch the outside seam before lighting, and how to use a lighter vs. hemp wick vs. a torch correctly. Everyone rolls two blunts minimum.
Most people have never thought critically about HOW they light — but butane lighters introduce chemicals, and technique determines whether the first pull is even or scorched. This short session covers hemp wick (what it is, how to wrap it, why it burns cooler and cleaner), proper torch angles for blunts vs. bowls vs. chalice, the "toast don't roast" approach to the first light, and the art of the corner on a bowl so a group doesn't kill a fresh pack in one hit.
The water pipe is one of the oldest filtration systems in human smoking history — and one of the most misunderstood. Trey Nolan (glassblower, 15 years) walks through the full anatomy of a bong: base, tube, downstem angle and diameter, the bowl piece and gasket, diffused downstems, tree percolators, honeycomb percs, splash guards, and ice catches. The science of what water actually filters (combustion byproducts, heat) vs. what it doesn't. Ideal water levels. How to fill, pack a bowl correctly (not too tight, not too loose, ground medium-fine), the carb cap concept, pulling technique, and clearing the chamber cleanly. Participants handle multiple glass pieces. Cleaning demonstration using isopropyl and salt included.
Before the convenience store wrap, there was the whole tobacco leaf — and in Caribbean tradition it still reigns. Elder Rohan Campbell walks through the difference between fronto (full outer leaf, used as a wrap) and grabba (inner leaf, crumbled and blended into the roll for flavor and buzz). How to select a good leaf by color, flexibility, and vein pattern. How to clean, cut, and condition the leaf. The art of rolling a fronto blunt from a whole unprocessed leaf — trimming, splitting the vein, moistening, filling, and the final form. This is the OG way.
Eat, rest, practice. All rolling stations remain stocked and open for free practice during lunch. Instructors rotate through informally. The Pipe Pavilion runs open handling time on the glass collection.
The coconut shell chalice is not a pipe — it is a sacrament vessel. Ras Kenyatta Morrison opens with the cultural and spiritual roots of the chalice in Rastafari: why the coconut was chosen, what water in the base represents (purity, Jah's creation), and the significance of the chillum pipe insert as a channel between the earth and the higher self. Then, the construction: selecting the right coconut shell half, sealing the bowl, fitting the chillum insert at the correct angle, the stem piece, and the clay cap that forms the bowl. Packing the chalice bowl: how much, how compressed, the herb-to-air ratio that makes the chalice smoke smooth and long. The ritual of gathering — how a chalice is passed, what words are spoken, what is owed to the tradition by those participating. Participants who wish to may handle and examine demonstration chalices. This session is held with reverence.
Before paper, before glass, humans smoked from stone, clay, bone, and wood. Amara Diallo brings her private collection of over 80 pipes spanning 12 traditions — from Ethiopian clay pipes to Jamaican chillums, Native American ceremonial pipes to the modern American spoon pipe. The session covers: how to read a pipe for quality (wall thickness, bore diameter, bowl depth, mouthpiece seal), how bowl shape affects how a pack burns, the correct pack for a spoon vs. a chillum vs. a one-hitter bat, cornering technique so a full bowl lasts and every person in the circle gets the green, and cleaning methods for each material. Participants handle pieces from the traveling collection with white gloves provided.
This is the graduate workshop. Prerequisite: at least one morning rolling session attended. Camille and Nadia co-lead the most ambitious rolling curriculum of the day — starting with perfect cone rolling from scratch (the inside-out wrap, the cone tuck, why cones burn slower), moving into pre-rolled cone packing technique (the layer-and-tap method, the poker, avoiding air pockets), and culminating in the cannagar: the ultimate hand-rolled format — the cannabis cigar. Participants learn to use a cannagar mold, the wrap-and-layer method around a compressed core, multi-leaf sealing, and the 24-hour cure that separates a great cannagar from a crumbling mess. Every participant completes one cone and begins one cannagar to take home. The class is small — 20 seats, advanced sign-up required at the door.
A dirty piece is a disrespectful piece. Trey covers the full maintenance cycle for every smoke system in the curriculum: isopropyl + coarse salt method for glass (the shake, rinse, and repeat cycle), cleaning wood and stone pipes without cracking, replacing rubber grommets and gaskets on water pipes, unclogging downstems, and how to store glass safely so it doesn't tip and shatter. Bonus: how to rehydrate a dry wooden pipe bowl that has started to crack, using food-grade hemp oil.
Nobody teaches this — and everybody needs it. Elder Rohan leads a candid, funny, and deeply informative session on the unwritten laws of the smoke circle: puff-puff-pass and why it exists, how long is too long, what to say when you don't want to smoke but are in the circle, never blowing smoke in anyone's face, the correct direction of the pass (always counterclockwise in a Rastafari reasoning, but why?), who lights, who holds the conversation, and how the chalice circle differs fundamentally in protocol from a casual group smoke. Includes stories from Elder Rohan's 40 years of participating in circles from Kingston to Amsterdam. The most disarming session of the day — come ready to laugh and learn.
Watch the sunset over the festival grounds. All rolling stations stocked for open practice. Instructors informally available. The cannagar molds from the advanced workshop are available for participants to check on their in-progress pieces.
At the end of a full day of learning, we find out who has leveled up. The Roll-Off is SelassieFest's community rolling competition — open to all Bluntly Speaking attendees. Three categories: Best Blunt, Best Joint, Best Creative Roll (anything goes — tulip, cross, braided, or your own invention). Judging criteria: structural integrity, evenness of pack, quality of seal, aesthetic beauty, and how well it burns. Prizes courtesy of the Ital Marketplace. Entries submitted by 5:45 PM at the sign-up board.
As the sky darkens and the festival music rises from the main stage, the Bluntly Speaking village gathers for its most sacred session: the evening chalice ceremony. In the Rastafari tradition, this is not recreation — it is reasoning; a communal seeking of truth and Jah's guidance through the holy herb. Ras Kenyatta leads. Words are spoken. The chalice passes. Those who do not participate in consumption are equally welcomed to sit, listen, and be present. Participants are asked to come with a reflection from the day — one thing learned, one thing felt, one thing carried forward. Shoes optional. All hearts required.
Every culture that has encountered cannabis has developed its own system for consuming it — shaped by local materials, spiritual beliefs, and social structure. Amara Diallo presents a 45-minute curated visual journey through smoking systems across Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and the Americas — from the ancient Ethiopian clay pipe to the Moroccan sebsi, the Himalayan chillum to the Jamaican chalice, the hookah to the modern American glass culture. Commentary on what each system says about the community that created it. Followed by open Q&A and handling of representative pieces from Amara's traveling collection.
The day ends where all good things end — with community. Certificates of participation for all who attended three or more sessions. The Roll-Off winners are recognized. Every attendee who completed a cannagar today can collect it to cure at home. Instructors share final words. The communal fire is reduced to embers. The village doesn't close — it sends you home with new hands and new knowledge.
This is a craft and culture space. These agreements keep it that way for everyone.
Bluntly Speaking is not just about technique — it's about understanding the full depth of what you hold in your hands. The paper, the leaf, the chalice, the pipe: each one carries centuries of human ritual, ingenuity, and community. We roll because people before us showed us how. We pass because we were taught to share.