Emmanuel Elpenord – East Flatbush

Emmanuel Elpenord is a Brooklyn-born, Coney Island-raised son of Haitians from Marchand Dessalines. His rising career as an actor, puppeteer, and voice-over artist spans nearly a decade to include credits off-Broadway, nationally, internationally, and New York City-wide. He received rave reviews in the original off-Broadway cast of Disney’s Winnie The Pooh (Rockefeller Productions); The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show; and many seasons of the Drilling Company’s Bryant Park Shakespeare. He also performs at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater, a long-standing puppetry institution of NYC. Emmanuel is thrilled to apply his passion and expertise to sharing this meaningful treasure of Haitian culture. 

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Emmanuel Elpenord produced a table-top puppet show, titled Owl Loves Angeline, a proud recipient of a 2024 Family Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation, and 2023 Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers Grant from Puppet Showplace Theater in Boston, Mass.

While curating a series of puppet-making workshops on the Brooklyn College campus, in partnership with the Brooklyn College Theater Department, Emmanuel has been interviewing Haiti-born members of our community, harkening back to childhood memories, and revealing the many functions these jokes and riddles served in their upbringings and our culture.

A musical collaboration with Okai Fleurimont of the first Lakou NOU cohort, elevated 4 bars of a simple folk tune from Diane Wolkstein’s esteemed anthology into the six-piece musical score that smoothly underpins Owl Loves Angeline. Puppeteers Darkin Brown and AnJu Hyppolite, a Lakou NOU alum, lend their endless talents to bringing this bittersweet tale to life. Emmanuel also teamed with Brooklyn College BFA Art majors, Filip Times, Xinyi Fang, and Latifah Shadae, to design and paint the gorgeous backdrops that set the scene of the story—but the final, most essential, element this performance requires is you! He welcomes the audience to dance and sing along, keeping alive this beloved tradition, and partake in the joy and wisdom within our heritage.