Dr. Paulette Richards is a celebrated artist, educator, performer, and author who studies the meaning of puppets, masks, and other performing objects in the African diaspora. She joins me for this episode on the roots and history of puppetry and object performance in Black America.

Dr. Richards offers her thoughts on why puppets made by enslaved people of African descent have not been found (yet), and how the broader category of object performance is exemplified in the African American culture through the relationship to material items such as church fans and musical instruments.

Finally, we discuss the echoes of African ritual culture in Black American object performance and the history of Black puppetry in the U.S., from the early 20th Century through the modern day.

• Dr. Paulette Richards' website:  ...