A Black theater performer in Canada is suing a racial justice activist for defamation after he was accused of performing with a puppet that reportedly depicts blackface.
Franck Sylvestre, a puppeteer based in Montreal, argued that the puppet he used in a theater piece called “L’incroyable secret de barbe noire” — “The Incredible Secret of Blackbeard” — was not a racist caricature as purported by activist Alain Babineau.
Sylvestre was scheduled to perform that play in several Montreal-area suburbs last year during Black History Month. However, organizations like the Red Coalition and the West Island Black Community Association urged those communities to cancel the shows, telling them that the puppet Sylvestre used was a caricature of blackface. Babineau is the Red Coalition’s director of racial profiling and public safety.
Blackface was established by white stage performers in 19th-century minstrel shows who painted their faces black to portray Black people in their plays and propagate racist stereotypes.
Sylvestre, who is originally from France, often tells stories in his performances based on his knowledge of Africa and the Antilles, according to CBC.
“That affected him a lot,” Sylvestre’s lawyer, Guillaume Rousseau, said. “He’s proud of being a Black artist, he’s proud to talk about Martinique, about his origins, and the puppet in question is a bit of a hero, so for him, it’s very positive, it’s for living together, and to see it interpreted in an unreasonable manner, as if it was racist, that affected him in particular.”
In September 2022, Sylvestre sent an official notice to Babineau demanding that he publicly retract the comments he made about him and his puppet.
Just this month, he also filed a defamation lawsuit against Babineau, accusing the activist of “falsely and deliberately” saying the puppet used blackface and went on a campaign to condemn the puppet’s use for “political…
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