Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh puppet karaoke jam to spotlight homemade videos

What do you get when you combine puppets and karaoke?

The BOOM Jam Puppet Slam, of course.

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh invites kids of all ages to tune in to the Nov. 14 celebration of puppets and the ways in which they can inspire us to tell stories and express emotion.

Local artists D.S. Kinsel and Dave English will host the slam and perform their own puppet karaoke, streaming 1-2 p.m. on City of Asylum’s virtual programming channel.

Also taking part in the fun will be a trio of other puppeteers, including Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, Paulette Richards and Felicia Cooper.

A native of Clairton, Pipkins launched his career in puppetry with street theater performances after moving to North Carolina in 2005. He provided puppetry for singer Missy Elliott’s “Where They From” video and also for an Amazon Echo commercial portraying Elliott and actor Alec Baldwin as puppets.

Atlanta-based Richards is an educator, puppeteer and creator of animatronic puppets. Cooper is a puppeteer and teaching artist and currently a graduate student in the University of Connecticut’s Puppetry Arts program.

The fun also will include streaming of submitted puppet karaoke videos.

It’s not too late to submit a video of your own, said Zena Ruiz, Arts in Context manager at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and MuseumLab. Pick a favorite tune and pick up a puppet and record the results.

Just make sure it’s less than 5 minutes long and the content is family friendly, Ruiz said.

Submissions are being taken here through Saturday.

English and Kinsel have performed puppet karaoke at venues around Pittsburgh, including First Night Pittsburgh festivities. English’s karaoke puppet is known as Party Machine, while Kinsel voices Dr. D.

“Puppet karaoke grew out of the natural friendship between Dave and I,” Kinsel said. “My puppet experience comes from years as an early childhood educator, specifically in the pre-K area. Dave is a puppet expert, and I have learned so much through our friendship and his mentorship as we’ve grown the project.”

Share a story

Kinsel is a co-founder of BOOM Concepts in Pittsburgh, a creative hub dedicated to advancing artists of color in marginalized communities. He and his wife, Anqwenique Kinsel, are current artists in residence at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

English is a puppeteer, educator, playwright and producer of the full-length puppet film, “The Dragon of Polish Hill.” He is the owner of David T. English Puppet Company.

The online event wraps up a puppetry workshop series offered through the museum’s MuseumLab educational programming. The workshops were inspired by the exhibition, “Puppets: A Beautiful Fantasy,” from the Children’s Museum’s Margo Lovelace Collection, exploring the rich puppet history of Pittsburgh and the world.

Lovelace founded the Lovelace Marionette Theatre, which had a longtime home in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside section. She also staged puppet shows at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. Upon retiring, she donated her puppets and masks to the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.

“She did wonders for children’s theater in the city,” Ruiz said.

As for combining puppets and karaoke, Ruiz says, “Karaoke is a big part of a lot of people’s lives, but a lot of people have fear or anxiety about performing. It’s not always easy to write a story or a script, but you can embody the puppet and communicate in a way that’s not so personal.

“It’s a way to share a story that’s not being shared.”

BOOM Jam Puppet Slam is a collaborative project of the museum, BOOM Concept’s Puppet Karaoke and City of Asylum.

To register for the live Nov. 14 event, visit pittsburghkids.org.