Megan Piphus
Megan Piphus may not be a household name. But for households with a certain demographic, her voice and her alter ego are very familiar. Piphus has played the role of Gabrielle on Sesame Street since 2020, and she became the first full-time Black woman puppeteer on the storied children’s television program in 2021. This week, Piphus will release her second album of music for kids, with strong connections to hip-hop and R&B. And while Gabrielle is not involved, many of the lessons Piphus has learned and shared on the show are evident in the record’s ethos.
“My first album Spaceships & Dreams is a very imaginative album about dreaming big,” says Piphus, who has won four Emmys. “But this album is for young girls. There’s lots of music that young girls listen to from ages 7 to 13, but that music isn’t necessarily written with them in mind. So my goal with Cinderella Sweep was to write music that was specifically for the girls, and values that I would have needed at that age.”
Piphus, who lives in Nashville with her family and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University, is joined on the album by 53 girls from the nonprofit Saving Our Daughters, including the Soul Children of Chicago youth choir. Saving Our Daughters is a nonprofit organization for which Piphus volunteers as a “celebrity godparent.” The idea behind Saving Our Daughters is to help girls from diverse backgrounds build self-esteem and confidence and to learn skills outside of those taught in schools. Saving Our Daughters works with different public, private and charter schools to implement their arts-based curriculum. There isn’t a school in Nashville working with Saving Our Daughters — yet. The more than 50,000 girls who have participated in Saving Our Daughters over the years are called “Cinderellas,” and that nickname inspired the album name. The album also features a narrative of a game show, which is where the “sweep” portion comes into play.
With Cinderella Sweep, Piphus says she has wowed her harshest critics: her sons, ages 6 and 4. “I finally wrote a couple of songs that they’re fans of and they genuinely love listening to, and they request in the car now,” she says with a laugh. “I feel really good about that.” One of her sons appears on the album, too.
The educational aspect of the album is crucial to Piphus, who continues to perform as Gabrielle as she works on other projects. That includes a children’s book called Talk to the Hand, set for publication next year from Penguin Young Readers. The book tells the story of how Piphus found her voice through puppetry.
The daughter of a pastor, Piphus was introduced to puppetry at age 10, when members of her church went to a conference with a Christian puppetry and ventriloquism component. Returning home, she went to the library, where she checked out VHS tapes on how to do ventriloquism.
“I watched them forwards and backwards,” she recalls. “Within a couple of weeks, I was performing at school in front of my classmates and telling jokes. From there, I wrote scripts and performed in front of the school and other schools, my church, other churches — and never quit.”
Her first puppet was a replica of Edgar Bergen’s famous Charlie McCarthy, because it was easily available. “It was a funny juxtaposition for me, to be a little 10-year-old Black girl with a puppet that had a tuxedo and spectacle and a top hat,” Piphus recalls. It took her another year or more to find her first Black puppet, a girl with a mullet she named Darlene.
It’s hard for Piphus to narrow down her own favorites on the 15-track album.
“I love different songs for different reasons. The first one on the album is ‘Good Morning, Good Day.’ That’s my favorite song to listen to in the morning, but my favorite song to dance to is ‘A New Cinderella.’ There are some beautiful, reflective songs, like ‘Garden on My Head,’ that have lots of beautiful imagery and time for reflection. My favorite song to teach with is ‘ABCs of Me.’ I love being able to teach through the arts, so that’s my favorite teaching song.”
