My name is Anthony Michael Stokes, and I would say I am a educator, a puppeteer, an actor, a singer, an author, puppetry artist, a playwright kind of goes on and on and on and on.

I kind of do it all.

I would say someone would say a jack of all trades, but I think that's a little insulting.

So I just say I'm a prince of all trades.

Yeah.

<i>♪ One day, when the glory comes ♪</i> <i>♪ It will be ours, it will be ours ♪ </i> <i>♪ Oh, one day ♪</i> <i>♪ When the war is won ♪</i> <i>♪ We will be sure, ♪</i> <i>♪ We will be sure ♪</i> So a lot of people wonder, what does being a puppeteer even entail?

Well, it's very physical, but it's basically you are taking all that is you, here, physically, emotionally, vocally, everything, and you're putting it into your ... to an inanimate object that is often manipulated by your hands.

But it's an inanimate object.

And they can vary.

I mean, to be honest, I could take this and make it interesting enough if I knew what I was trying to do with it.

It's something as simple as that to something more specific.

So here's..here's Bawba.

Who is ... You can see these puppets are made of lots of different materials and there are various levels.

This is actually like as simple as they come.

For me, it's just a sock.

So it's a glorified sock, a couple of socks and a wig.

But I...See, even right now I'm talking to you and he's already kind of coming to life.

And that kind of just comes from years of doing it.

But it's just putting all of the everything that is here, you know, That's why it's not...It's important, you know, when people think of the Muppets and they think of these characters that come to life, they think that people are just doing the voices of them, but they're also they are physically also bringing them to life.

If I, if, if I suddenly am "Bawba talking to you, it's the weight of the character, the personality of the character.

It's all there.

It's all there, right?"

"Yeah.

Mhmm."

So, you know, and so it's all of it has to be here, you know?

So I think it's sometimes people think puppetry is easy, but the people that are really, really great at this and really do it well know that it's like a craft that takes so much time.

There's not even a lot of schools for it.

A lot of puppeteers learn it from just doing it, just practicing on your own.

It's changed in the years, but there's a lot of time where I'm just sitting around and just moving my hand to lip sync to whatever's on, you know, online or I'm watching just to keep practicing it.

Yeah, I'm going to do a lot of physical therapy, I'm sure, when I get older, but that's all right.

And so here's Ayo, so you can see even the manipulation.

So that's that was Bawba and he's a lot simpler.

This is Ayo.

"And well, hi, how are you?

Yes, very good.

Yes.

So you can see it is different manipulation, but it all is still all in the body.

All of it is here.

I think what is here and I put it all here," You know, when you go to the eye doctor and they're like A or B and you realize, oh, that one's better?

I think that's the kind of work that I like to do.

I think of it a little bit like that.

And it's also just things that just the people kind of take for granted as stories and giving them more depth.

So that they exist on a different platform.

And they can also exist for all these young people of color.

And I think that's a huge part of it as well.

It's the it's the the representation for people, younger people that are coming up that I didn't have.

So now I'm starting to get to a place where I'm able to put these little, these little pieces out there of representation in this... in these different platforms and fields for generations coming up that maybe they can latch on to and that'll sprout them to do something with it.

And it's so interesting that I say all of that about the next generation, because a lot of the stuff I do seems like it's for kids because it has a... there's a lesson in it, but I actually don't do a lot of my puppetry for children because it's not just for kids.

This should be for everybody, you know?

And so the work, the scarecrow itself, there's a misconception, I think, of even about the show, even the people that know about it now that because it's connected to The Wizard of Oz, they think it's a kids show, but it's about a man who was lynched and was magically turned into the scarecrow.

So...there's that.

There's a hard lesson there.

The thing is.

But you think about these stories, these these fairy tales and these fantasy stories.

You think those are those original Grimm stories.

They were really grim, you know, and these were "children's stories".

So that's why I'm like, okay, well, they'll be fine taking in this.

You know, It feels like we're at a point with these different generations that there is a sense of unsettling and wanting to make true change that's going to affect people.

Though it feels...

I mean, the resistance is mighty, but the way it feels... Like there's also there's a difference and there's these artists and it's like, we're being inspired by that person and that person to keep doing it.

Like kind of what we're doing.

It feels like something can happen and change can happen.

And then for the lives that we're living now, there's no, it can be as good as they can be, as well as the the lives, the many lives that are for people coming after us.