In acknowledgment of Black History month, WP Puppet Theatre is excited to celebrate and support Black Canadian puppeteers and artists and feature some of their amazing art. What we found was a bias of underrepresentation of Black Artists across Canada not just in puppetry, but also in general. We believe this is symptomatic of the systemic racism and sometimes overt racial inequality that still exists today.

We are pleased to celebrate the inspiring work of Black Canadian artists for example Kristine Maitland and those artists featured this CBC article, as well as amazing puppeteers showcased in our Chairman’s Favourites on Facebook. We urge others to share and celebrate our Black Canadian artists too, not just in this prescribed month but ongoing.

This experience has confirmed to us once again, the importance of work that our board and staff are currently undertaking, namely organizational transformation through Anti-Racist training as well as the formalization of actionable and measurable practices supporting Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility. Please read here for our response to the 35//50 Initiative and more about our Next Steps.