We recently connected with Paulette Richards and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Paulette thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
In 2019 I set out to discover whether there is a traceable connection between traditional African puppets, masks, and performing objects and contemporary African American puppetry. There was no material culture record of performing objects made by African Americans enslaved in the United States because slaveholders prohibited the creation of African style masks, puppets, and performing objects. In the absence of such objects, I examined the whole performance complex where African performing objects traditionally appeared– dance, music, and storytelling. Since human beings can attribute private, personal meanings to objects obtained for personal use, I also studied objects that aren’t normally used in western style theatrical performances — dolls, vessels, and quilts. There I found that the lines of material culture continuity between African and African American object performance run through objects that performed in ritual rather than theatrical capacities. I also discovered that the history of African American puppetry tracks with the process of desegregation. Since African object performance practices had been suppressed and the United States lacks a folk puppet tradition, African Americans could only learn about puppetry through association with people outside the Black community. In the twentieth century, increased educational and economic opportunities along with new media technologies enabled African Americans to use performing objects as a powerful mode of resistance to the objectification of Black bodies. I am thankful to have been able to chronicle this story in Object Performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States.
Paulette, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a recovering academic. Ten years ago, while I was a 2013/ 2014 Fulbright Scholar in Senegal, the puppet bug bit me hard. Hoping to launch a second-act career upon my return to the States, I considered enrolling in the Puppet Arts Online Graduate Certificate program at the University of Connecticut, but taking on debt to pay the tuition did not seem practical. Fortunately, I live in Atlanta, home of the Center for Puppetry Arts so I volunteered as a docent in the Worlds of Puppetry Museum and used that training as the foundation of a “homegrown” MFA in Puppetry. After a year of building puppets and studying the history of the art form, I “graduated” and was accepted into the National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center. I thought that my days of academic research and writing were over but in 2017 I was hired to co-curate the Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit at the University of Connecticut’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry with Dr. John Bell. Living Objects established my reputation as a puppetry scholar, and I went on to teach History of World Puppetry in the same Puppet Arts certificate program that I originally couldn’t afford. The research journey I started with the Living Objects exhibit turned into a book titled Object Performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States, now available from Routledge.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My mission is healing myself and the communities of which I am a member through the stories I tell about African American experience.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In February of 2023 a friend gave me a voucher for a free, roundtrip flight on Southwest Airlines. I used the voucher to book a trip to Baltimore where friends graciously invited me to stay in their homes and loaned me a car so that I could explore the city. I was able to offer a free puppet-building workshop at Black Cherry Puppet Theater and attend the opening of The Village of African American Doll Artists doll exhibit at the Frederick Douglass—Isaac Meyers Museum. Camila Bryce-Laporte greeted me with a big hug. It turned out she had been looking for me since the previous November when we met at the American Folklore Society conference. She wanted to include one of my works in her next exhibit. I was deeply honored to be part of such a powerful community of accomplished artists and literally saw rainbows over Charm City as my flight headed back to Atlanta.
The nightmare started at the baggage claim. My second checked bag never showed up. Southwest Airlines had created a system of automated text messages rather than providing any human customer service to assist customers with lost bags. The cost of replacing the suitcase, the external hard drive, and the crafting tools inside was more than the price of the “free” flight. Additionally, I lost 12 dolls and puppets that I had made, including a self-portrait doll I created at age 12. She was wrapped up in my portable altar along with heirloom rings I inherited from my grandmothers and a necklace from my great grandmother. No amount of money can ever replace these items.
I grieved deeply for several weeks. Then Camila suggested that the dolls had gone to do other work in the world. This idea gave me some comfort. I made a new figure for The Calling: The Transformative Power of African American Doll and Puppet Making. Thanks to friends who gave me rides and places to stay in New York city, I was able to see “Mme Carrefour” hanging in the show when it opened at City Lore October 6, 2023. Corporations like Southwest Airlines have claimed the status of “persons,” but they have no interest in contributing to human community. We truly do get by with help from our friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ayamedia.wixsite.com/paulette-richards
- Instagram: ayamediation
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/paulette-richards-9ab85b24
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ayamedia
- Other: Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-37429842
Image Credits
Photos by Paulette Richards Book cover shows “Moses and the Idolaters” 1945 by Ralph Chessé