The Artists of the Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers
“My cohort was a much needed source of creative accountability, support, and community. The time together had a huge impact on the artistic development of our work.”
Puppet Showplace’s Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers seeks to diversify representation on our stage and in our field by investing in creative research and early-stage production development by Black puppeteers from Greater Boston and from across the country.
Meet the previous cohorts of the Creative Residency below; you can read about the current 2023 cohort here.
Meet the 2023 Artists
Jordan Brown – When I See the Water (WT)
Jordan Brown (he/they) is a visual artist and writer based in Chicago, IL. Born and raised in the DC-metropolitan area, he moved to Montreal, QC in 2014 to study Literature and Creative Writing at Concordia University. While in Montreal, he was closely involved with the performance art, poetry, and contemporary dance community there. In 2021, he moved to Chicago to study Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a Master of Fine Arts in 2023.
In his path towards visual art, he studied contemporary dance, somatics, creative writing, fashion, physics and theology, and spent time in Japan and Germany. His interdisciplinary practice in sculpture, installation, textile, video, and drawings uses collage techniques to assemble personal mythologies from old clothing, text, and found objects.
Emmanuel Elpenord – Jokes with Josue: A Haitian Puppet Show
A queer, first-generation Haitian-American actor, puppeteer, and voice-over artist born and raised in Coney Island, Emmanuel Elpenord (he/him) graduated magna cum laude from Brooklyn College with an Acting BFA, TV & Radio BA, and Creative Writing BFA. His puppetry career spans nearly a decade: credits include first off-Broadway, first national and international tours of the Very Hungry Caterpillar Show; original off-Broadway cast of Disney's Winnie The Pooh with Rockefeller Productions. He's performed with the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park and across NYC with their PuppetMobile for over 8 years. He’s worked with long-standing companies like La Mama, The Metropolitan Opera, The Drilling Company’s Bryant Park Shakespeare, St Ann’s Warehouse, Dixon Place, People’s Improv Theater, Abrons Art Center. He’s recently attended the National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center, and performed with Drama of Works at the National Puppet Festival in College Park, Maryland.
For more about Emmanuel, check out his website and Instagram.
Photo by S*an D. Henry-Smith
Ladipo Famodu – Allotropy
Ladipo Famodu (he/him) is an artist, designer, chemist, and capoeirista. He is interested in kinaesthetic learning, where knowledge is exchanged through the manipulation of objects, or by moving one's body. Much of his work employs playfulness and surrealism in an attempt to undo the tethered logics of anti-blackness and modernity. He is currently working with wire sculpture, performance, and fine jewelry.
Ladipo received an MA in Design from the Sandberg Instituut (2022), and a BS in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota (2015). He was a recipient of the Holland Scholarship, and has been awarded a SPARK grant from the Chicago Artist Coalition. His work has been shown at the South Side Community art Center, Museum of Science and Industry, and he has contributed to the German Pavilion of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. His writing has been featured in The Funambulist, and Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. Ladipo is currently based in Chicago.
Brenda Ray – The Lion And The Four Bulls
“Disappointment is the seed of success." I am a lover of quotes, proverbs, fables, and humor. It’s my lifeline to happiness. Like many artists, I’m a lifelong learner and a lover of learning both in and out of the classroom. Formerly, I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology; a Masters of Education in Instructional Media Design from University of Massachusetts Boston; and a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Animation from Mass College of Art and Design.
Throughout the years I’ve had the opportunity to grow as both an artist, writer, and scientist. I’ve entertained on stage as an actress, storyteller, puppeteer, and vocalists. There are too many wacky and weird stories of my ventures to put in this bio. I’ve also worked as an educator in the field of health and art for children and adults. Everything I loved to do I taught in classrooms, colleges, shopping malls, festivals, museums, community centers and incarcerated facilities. Growing up I became aware, through unnecessary hardships children go through around learning. I believe children learn best through interactive activities. Playing and learning go together. My goal is to create experimental storytelling edutainment using multimedia that includes puppetry to help tweens develop their common sense compass. There is so much out there to help children become more humane adults. I want to be part of that community.
For more about Brenda, check out her online portfolio and Instagram.
James Welch – Mr. Jones
James Welch (he/him) is a multimedia artist and educator from Evanston, IL. He received his MFA in Expanded Media from the University of Kansas and his BA in sculpture from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. He prefers to work with recycled materials, found objects, clay, and textiles of all sorts, all of which serve as vehicles for his exploration of the rich and nuanced experiences within Black culture. His work challenges the prevailing narrative of suffering associated with Black existence, which has become perpetuated through internet imagery. Instead, the art delves into the realms of Black speculative fiction and imagination, not as abstract concepts but as tangible practices. Daringly re-imagining the future for Black people by centering his creative inquiries on the question, "What if?"
Ash Winkfield – Water Walker
Ashley Winkfield (xe/xem/xyr) is a multidisciplinary artist from Durham, NC where they grew up surrounded by music and the arts. They continued their music education at Boston Latin School in the orchestra and vocal programs. They began their journey into professional performance at UNC-Chapel Hill where they were introduced to puppetry while workshopping Basil Twist's Rite of Spring. Ashley specializes in new and devised works presented in New York (Jazz at Lincoln Center, Abrons Art Center, LaMama Experimental Theatre), North Carolina (Duke University) and internationally. Most recently, they performed with Pinwheel Works’ “The Magic Pearl”, Basil Twist’s “Book of Mountains and Seas” and the Walk with the Amal. They currently train with Shannah Rae Vocal Studios and Lucid Body Technique.
Meet the 2022 Artists
Community Sharing
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Community Sharing on June 16, 2022! Watch the recording below.
Cori Barefield — enormous tiny serendipitous shapes
Cori Barefield (“enormous tiny serendipitous shapes”) is a visual artist with a background in drawing, painting, filmmaking, metalsmithing, and handmade jewelry. He is also familiar with electrical, motor repair, and some light carpentry. He has worked in film with Redwood Media Co. and in performance art staging, lighting, and storytelling with Awaken Circus and Dance Theater. Over the past few years he has had a growing interest in expanding his skills into the realm of puppetry.
After spending several years collaborating and networking with other artists including filmmakers, storytellers, and performance artists, he established herself as a visual artist that creates for theater, film, small gatherings, and virtual events. He strives to unite the people through love, peace, light and creativity.
He draws his inspiration from nature, historical figures, current events, and black empowerment. He aims to change society through positive narratives that debunk negative stereotypes and address societal failures.
Zetta Elliott — Seeds from the Stars
Zetta Elliott (“Seeds from the Stars”) is the author of over forty books for young readers, including the award-winning picture books Bird, Melena’s Jubilee, and A Place Inside of Me. Dragons in a Bag, a middle grade fantasy novel, was named an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book and was selected for the 2021 Global Read Aloud. The sequel, The Dragon Thief, was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Her young adult poetry collection, Say Her Name, was named a 2020 “Best of the Best” title by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was nominated for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award. Her own imprint, Rosetta Press, generates culturally relevant stories that center children who have been marginalized, misrepresented, and/or rendered invisible in traditional children’s literature. Elliott's plays have been staged in New York, Chicago, and Cleveland. She currently lives in Chicago, IL.
Leah Lara — The Princess that Danced with the Wind
Leah Lara (she/they) (“The Princess that Danced with the Wind”) is a twenty-one-year-old artist currently living in Providence, Rhode Island. They are majoring in Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, with a special interest in 3-D illustration, puppetry, and children’s media. The themes of their work are often that of the fantastical, whimsical, and ethereal, combined with investigations of the black experience. The core of their art practice lies in being a responsible image and media creator, with a responsibility to combat harmful media depictions and stereotypes of marginalized communities.
Christine Langford — Merit Mann
Christine Langford is an artist, instructor, designer, and Shadow Puppeteer. She has taught workshops and performed at various national festivals and school programs in the greater Cincinnati area. She has earned a B.S. in Fashion Design from the University of Cincinnati, DAAP and an M.A. in Art Education from Mount St. Joseph University. Christine recently retired as an elementary art teacher and adjunct professor at Northern Kentucky University.
Christine is dedicated to exploring the psychological, physical, and spiritual aspects of storytelling with shadow and light. Her emphasis is on providing innovative ways to voice personal stories. Current endeavors include writing, filming, and editing shadow puppet films. Her latest film, Caged was featured in “The Teacher’s Lounge” exhibit at the Kennedy Heights Art Center in Cincinnati.
For more about Christine, check out her Instagram.
Meet the 2021 artists
Community Sharing
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Community Sharing on March 13, 2021! Watch the recording below.
0:00 - Intro / Welcome
3:10 - Faith James, Ankou
19:28 - Hadley Mays, Sycorax
29:43 - Barrington Edwards, Apocatastasis, Apocalypse, Apotheosis Plan
43:49 - Tanya Nixon-Silberg, Community Curator
48:23 - Question and Answer, facilitated by Dey Hernández
Thank you to the Jim Henson Foundation for supporting our Winter 2021 artists.
Barrington Edwards — Apocatastasis Apocalypse Apotheosis Plan
Barrington Edwards (“Apocatastasis Apocalypse Apotheosis Plan”) is from Boston and is an artist and community activist. He attended Hampton University in Virginia and the Massachusetts College of Art where he earned both a BFA in Communication Design and a MSAE in Art Education. Barrington taught visual arts at the Boston Arts Academy for nineteen years. He is a Massachusetts State Universities Educator Alumni Award 2019 winner, a Surdna and an Expressing Boston fellow, a publisher of comics and graphic media, and works as a freelance artist and consultant. Barrington is a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable, a co-founder of Comics in Color, and is active with the Design Studio for Social Intervention and the Black Speculative Arts Movement. He currently teaches Art Education as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design where he continues to help develop young teachers. Barrington consistently works to develop his practice as an art maker and social interventionist in concert with his teaching.
Dey Hernández — On the Eve of Abolition
Dey Hernández (Scenes from “On the Eve of Abolition”) is an Afro-Caribbean bicultural worker (AgitArte collective), curator, interdisciplinary artist, permaculturist, puppeteer (Papel Machete), movement artist (Danza Orgánica), designer and educator centering on collaborative projects + practices. As a border artist between Puerto Rico and Boston, through modeling, manifesting and building opportunities for liberation in the everyday, her work untangles how the complicated diasporic and colonial histories of this so-called nation persist and continue to operate throughout the world and within its own perimeters. She is a producer and co-host of When We Fight, We Win!: The Podcast and curator/art director of the book by the same name. Dey holds a Master of Architecture (March) from the University of Puerto Rico. Issues of race, identity, language, and community are fundamental to her work. Dey is based in Roxbury, MA.
Faith James — Ankou
Faith James (“Ankou”) is currently completing her MFA degree in Costume Design and Technology in the School of Theatre, TV and Film at San Diego State University. She has studied and practiced Costume Design and tech in Trinidad and Tobago where she specialized in wire artisanry yearly for Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival. Her Puppet and Costume design and artisanry experiences range from working on small experimental new plays such as Lying With Badgers with the Native Voices of the Autry to big budget main stage productions such as James and the Giant Peach where she also focused on puppet build. She is currently working on the production of She Kills Monsters at San Diego State University. Her latest project has been costume designing for The Niceties directed by Delicia Turner and a production of the opera Orpheo (Peri) directed by Alan E.Hicks. She is also a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT).
Hadley Mays — Sycorax
Hadley Mays (“Sycorax”) is an actress, interdisciplinary performing artist, theater deviser, teacher and workshop facilitator. She has worked and studied in many cultures in contemporary, ancient and postmodern traditions. Hadley holds an MFA in Theater: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University. Performing nationally and internationally, she has devised work across many genres including classical theater, Butoh, Afro-diasporic dance, object theater, performance installations, and ritual performance.
Says Hadley: “Alternative states of consciousness and the translation of messages, images, and energy between worlds is central to the way I work. African genius as manifested and felt for through cultural, intellectual, spiritual and somatic means is one of my passionate pursuits”.
Tanya Nixon-Silberg of Little Uprisings (biography below) returns to serve as our community curator. Tanya has been a Puppet Showplace Incubator artist and was recently awarded an artist fellowship from the Arts and Business Council of Boston.
Welcome, artists! Hadley, Faith, Barrington, and Dey at our first meeting.
Meet the 2020 artists
Community Sharing
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Community Sharing in 2020! Watch the recording below.
Audiences from across the country gathered for an inspiring afternoon exploring the creative discoveries made by the artists in our first grantee cohort.
0:00 - Artistic Director Roxie Myhrum
5:25 - Nehprii Amenii, Human
22:45 - Tanya Nixon-Silberg, Feeling Good = Feeling Black = Feeling Free
35:48 - Sara Outing, Doors
50:15 - Anthony Michael Stokes, Bawba Sheep’s Black
1:06:17 - Danysha Ligon, Tout timoun bondye yo fet ak dan
1:20:25 - Dirk Joseph, The Truth about Cats and Dogs
1:30:00 - Question and Answer
Nehprii Amenii — Human
Nehprii Amenii (“Human”) is a director, writer, puppeteer and educator. She has worked with and created puppetry for Bread and Puppet Theatre, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation, The New York Philharmonic, and more. She has enjoyed 20 years of teaching and curriculum development . She uses storytelling and puppetry to mentor teachers and help newly arrived immigrants share their own stories. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors lab, has served as advisor for Ballard Institute and Museum of puppetry, is recipient of the Lipkin Prize for playwriting for her Play Food for the Gods, is author and Illustrator of Memories of the Little Elephant, and is the artistic director of Khunum Productions.
For more about Nehprii, check out her website and Instagram.
Dirk Joseph — The Truth about Cats and Dogs
Dirk Joseph (“The Truth about Cats and Dogs”) is the founder of String Theory Theater, a small Baltimore-based puppet troupe composed of artist Dirk Joseph and his daughters Sequoia (20 yrs) and Azaria (13 yrs). Founded in 2016, String Theory Theater’s performance themes range from children’s puppetry to adult satire to a style of narrative improv that pulls the audience into the show. Their shows employ various narrative styles though multiple puppetry formats including hand puppets, rod puppets, crankies, shadow puppets, marionettes, toy theater, and large scale festival puppets. String Theory Theater also conducts creative workshops. Dirk was born in Trinidad, grew up in NY, and has been based in Baltimore for the last 16 years. For the last 30 years he has worked as a visual artist, art teacher, performing artist (puppetry and theater), and a graphic designer. In addition to being puppeteers and helping with script writing and production, Koi and Azaria are also both digital artists and sculptors.
For more about Dirk, check out his personal portfolio, website, and Instagram.
Danysha Ligon — Tout timoun bondye yo fet ak dan
Danysha Ligon (“Tout timoun bondye yo fet ak dan”) is a teaching artist currently based in Northeast Mississippi. She spends the majority of her time teaching at Noxubee County High School in Macon, Mississippi. Upon graduating from Valdosta State University with her BFA in Theatre Performance, she has been devising new theatre works for young audiences. You can see her Haitian-American influence in her productions that are filled with color, music, and zest! Her experiences as a Haitian-American woman have devoted her artistic endeavors to shining a light on culture, inclusion, and diversity. She hopes to spread the love of storytelling and pay homage to those who came before her and leave much for those that will come after her. Danysha believes theatre is a driving force that aids creativity and understanding in a world when we need it most. Her goal is to make that accessible to as many young artists as possible. This summer, Danysha’s work explores the darker side of disparaged people, specifically Black people. Inspired by African trickster tales and the works of Basquiat, she challenges audiences to find beauty in absurd and “unappealing” scenes. Her multimedia work engages deeply with current events and questions whether people are only worthy when they are “good.” She hopes to use her experiences and training to inspire, educate, and empower the next generation of young artists.
For more about Danysha, check out her website.
Tanya Nixon-Silberg — Feeling Good = Feeling Black = Feeling Free
Tanya Nixon-Silberg (“Feeling Good = Feeling Black = Feeling Free”) is a Black Mother, Artist, Educator, Radical Dreamer from Boston, MA. Tanya transforms theory into practice, translates concepts into conversation, and works alongside children to reimagine a just world. Tanya is the founder of Little Uprisings, a new project that focuses on deeper relationships with institutions that serve kids to make racial justice an everyday goal. Kids+Art+Justice is her recipe for liberation and kid-powered revolutions. As an artist in Puppet Showplace Theater’s Incubator program, she produced and co-created a puppet production of Innosanto Nagara’s My Night in the Planetarium funded by The Boston Foundation and The Jim Henson Foundation. Her liberation work has been in many arts institutions in Greater Boston including the Boston Public Library, Institute for Contemporary Art, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the Peabody Essex Museum.
Sara Outing — Doors
Sara Outing (“Doors”) is a puppeteer, fabricator, musician, and theatre designer from Chapel Hill, NC, where she apprenticed in construction and performance with Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Now working in Philadelphia, her recent designs have included shadow work in Medea (Hedgerow Theatre), Potts (The Greenfield Collective), and #PhillySavesEarth (Marty Pottenger), and Iphigenia (U Penn Theatre Arts), as well as masks and puppets for The Good Person of Szechuan (U Penn), Gregor (InVersion Theatre, NYC) and Children of Eden (Wolf Performing Arts Center). Her favorite work centers narratives of loneliness into commonality, finds joy in transforming and elevating second-hand materials, and seeks visions of a liberated future using the traditions of radical puppetry. Sara is an alumna of the apprenticeship program at InterAct Theatre Company and of the University of Pennsylvania, where she also coordinates advisory programs for student performing artists.
For more about Sara, check out her website.
Anthony Michael Stokes — Bawba Sheep’s Black
Anthony Michael Stokes (“Bawba Sheep’s Black”) is currently Theatre Arts director of Jefferson/Silva Magnet High School. He is a resident director of El Paso Kids-n-Co Children’s theatre company and program director of the music theatre summer program. He has been trained as a puppeteer with the Sesame Street Puppeteer workshop. He has worked in South Korea as a performer, teaching artist, choreographer and head costume designer. He has appeared in puppet cabaret performances at both The Tank and the Metropolitan Room in NYC. He’s appeared in national tours including, Season of Miracles (Pushcart Players), Clifford the Big Red Dog Live originating the roles of Charley/Mr. Partland. Most recently he appeared as Papa Shakespeare in Titan Theatre Company’s The African Company Presents: Richard III. Other credits include; Arnall in NYC’S longest running play Line (13th Street Rep), Hondo/Walt in Aisle Six (NY International Fringe Festival), Dan in Next to Normal and Othello in Othello. He’s written and published a children’s book The Chromy Chronicles: Book One and is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association. Read more about Anthony’s Project.
For more about Anthony, check out his website and Instagram.
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Support this program by making a donation online or by mailing a check to Puppet Showplace Theater, 32 Station Street, Brookline, MA 02445 with “Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers” in the memo.
