Please Note: Creative Alliance practices dynamic ticket pricing. As the show becomes more popular the price does increase. Please buy early to ensure the best price.
Members Get Service Fees Waived!
The festival, the largest of its kind in the country, works with artists to showcase crankies from Baltimore and beyond! A crankie is basic in concept: it is a scroll that provides the visual narration to a story or song. Versions of the crankie have been around for hundreds of years, if not longer; their most recent iteration is directly linked to moving panoramas popular in the 19th Century. In recent years, artists have begun to embrace the intimacy of the format, creating multi-layered, immersive experiences for audiences.
Valeska Populoh
Valeska Populoh (she/her) works as a teacher, artist and cultural organizer in her adopted hometown of Baltimore, MD. Embracing a wide array of tactics, from puppetry and printmaking, to art builds and participatory performance, Valeska is motivated by an interest in healing and repair, in deepening our relationships to each other and to all our kin. Valeska’s creative practice seeks rich webs of entanglement and connection with the local and regional, with the multiple dimensions of place, from watershed to time. She has been deeply formed by working with Bread and Puppet Theater, Great Small Works, All the Saints Theater, and other politically and socially-engaged puppet and parade organizations. She has learned from and gives thanks for the Aorta Collective, Peoples’ Institute for Survival and Beyond, White Awake, Baltimore Racial Justice Action and the many community-rooted, justice-oriented organizations, organizers and elders in Baltimore.
Additional puppeteering support by Peter Redgrave.
Musical accompaniment by Marian McLaughlin.
The Lantern Sisters
The Lantern Sisters (Katherine Fahey and Dan Van Allen) are based in Baltimore, Maryland. Folk art is not static; it shifts with the times, uncovering new meanings in old words, new ways of talking about the communal pathways that led us to where we are today. For artists Katherine Fahey and Dan Van Allen, Crankies are a way to interpret our uncertain times, to draw artistic inspiration and power from the sources of meaning in their lives. History, community, folk tales, ballads, live performance, and environmental instability all manifest in the sounds, feelings, and sensations that permeate their Crankies. Their work transports audiences to another time and place, with their authentic and personal interpretations of folk tales, oral histories, and songs of America and Canada.
Facebook: facebook.com/2hawks2fishes
Instagram: instagram.com/katherine_fahey
Patreon: patreon.com/katherinefahey
The Cups – (Liz Downing, Hannah Olivegren, Greg Hatem)
Liz Downing is an image maker, currently calling through voice, banjo, inks and gouache, collaborating with beloved performance artists, musicians and writers to create crankies, psyche folk music and Existential Psycho-Puppet Therapy. Liz came to Baltimore in 1982 to study painting with the Late Grace Hartigan. Liz lives here still, in Beautiful Baltimore with her wife and dog.
Liz Downing
https://lizdowningart.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.downing.5
https://www.instagram.com/donwingdowning/?hl=en
Hanna Olivegren Wessblad (b1987) is an artist from Stockholm, Sweden.
She moved to Baltimore in 2015, and has since been creating musical groups and collaborating with many Baltimore artists, including Midnight Sun, ZOMES, Underworld Orchard and The Cups.
Beyond making music she also loves working with video and photography.
Hanna Olivegren
https://www.instagram.com/hannaolivegren/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/hanna.olivegren
Greg Hatem (b. 1987) is a musician and artist who has been writing and producing original work in Baltimore over the past two decades. With many esteemed collaborators, he regularly performs in several musical configurations. Hatem is the co-founder/operator of Bazaar, a curiosity gift shop in Hampden.
Greg Hatem
https://www.instagram.com/internet.greg/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/gfhatem
Lee Connah
Lee is a carpenter, craftsman, artist, and musician who grew up in Baltimore City. With craft experience as varied as tying trout flies, knapping arrowheads, and building traditional log cabins Lee turned to lutherie in the aughts creating more than 30 guitars, cellos, and other instruments from salvaged and repurposed materials. Lee is drawn to crankies for their unique combination of artistry, craft, and storytelling and has shown crankies at such venues as the La Mama Experimental Theater in New York City, The Chosewood Ballroom in Atlanta, and the Tip Top Music Festival in Western Maryland.
https://lconnah.wixsite.com/crankies-instruments
https://soundcloud.com/you/albums
https://lconnah.wixsite.com/bmorehandyman
Sheila Gaskins
Sheila “Strawberry” Gaskins is a Teaching Artist, Puppeteer, Activist, Playwright, Stand-Up Comic, Arts Advocate, Conflict/ Solution Facilitator,Author and Healer. Recipient of The Grit Fund and Alternate Roots Grant for: Puppets, Masks and Crankiest: Shifting the Story. A city wide effort to introduce Puppetry and Puppet making to residents of Baltimore City and the entire world.She is the author of her first book of poetry and prose, A Whistling Girl and a Crowing Hen Never Comes To A Very Good End And Other Things My Mama Said.
Website: https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/sheilagaskins
Instagram: @sillysheilah
Samuel Lewis
Samuel J. Lewis, II is a puppeteer, teaching artist, and arts administrator whose work bridges tradition, innovation, and community. With a background in theater, Sam discovered puppetry by accident as a performer but quickly realized that it is a powerful medium for storytelling—one that merges craft, performance, and imagination in ways that engage audiences of all ages. Sam’s artistry spans multiple puppetry forms in ways that explore themes of identity, history, and resilience. His performances have been featured in festivals, cabarets, and community events, where he brings a bold visual style and a deep sense of play to the stage. Beyond performance, Sam is dedicated to creating spaces where puppeteers can connect, collaborate, and grow. As an arts administrator, he has worked to grow and develop programs that support emerging artists, expand access to puppetry education, and celebrate the diversity of voices within the field. He has been closely involved with Rough House Puppet Arts, and the Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival, organizations that nurture new works and showcase the breadth of contemporary puppetry. Sam’s puppetry practice is grounded in collaboration. He frequently partners with artists in a variety of disciplines. His vision of puppetry is expansive: one that honors its deep history while pushing into new realms of artistic possibility. Through his performances, leadership, and advocacy, Sam continues to help shape puppetry as an evolving art form and a vital tool for connection.
Instagram: @sam_u_el_le_w_is, @_hunter_diamond_
Free Pile Productions (5 Performers)
Free Pile Productions is a multimedia art collective in the Connecticut River Valley, Massachusetts. We’re playing off each other to create joyful and accessible performances for everyone; art out of nothing.
Website: https://www.freepileproductions.org/
Instagram: @freepileproductions
Emily Schubert
Crankie Fest curator & host Emily Schubert is a puppeteer, crankie maker, storyteller and mixed media artist, currently based in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. She has participated in puppet theater festivals and workshops in Europe, Indonesia, and the United States including performing at the Letni Letna Festival (2014) in Prague with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (2022), at the National Puppetry Festival (2018), National Puppet Slam (2016), and New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival (2022-23). She is also the curator and organizer of the Baltimore Crankie Festival and has hosted many a “puppet slam” including her self-produced Experimental Puppet Happenings (2022-2023). Emily is enthralled by the emotive power and depth of expression achieved through puppetry and storytelling and she believes that within these realms lies a source of powerful real-life magic that is deficient in much of our daily lives. Everyone could use more puppet encounters, crankies, and chances to stop and listen to a story!
Website: www.emily-schubert.com
Instagram: @schubertemily
Z SMITH
A dynamic stage performer with a body of work consisting mainly of clown and physical comedy. Z is best known for the character Pepito. Both a solo performer and a collaborative creator, Z has crafted many unique productions for audiences of all ages. All performances are a romp through the absurd on a seamless blend of improvisation and structured storytelling, a delightful balance of spontaneity and meticulous character development.
Performing has taken her across Europe, Mexico, and the United States – in addition to physical comedy, Z loves to sing, dance, make visual art, and play music. A lover of biodiversity, she created & stewards a green-space in Baltimore, The Old York Community Park. In her spare time she runs an organizing business called Bower Bird Productivity in Baltimore, where she applies her creative skills as well as rigorous workflow management training to help clients bring order and beauty to their spaces.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/491875636 – Video clip
IG @pepitoycarmelita
FB PepitoTheClown
Baker Artist Page
zsmithzsmith.com
Location: The Patterson
Location: The Patterson
Location: The Marquee Lounge
Location: The Patterson
