ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
Raven Chanticleer was a larger-than-life eccentric and multi-talented artist. For thirty full years, he dreamed of opening his very own wax museum devoted to Black history in Harlem. In 1989, he finally did. The African American Wax Museum, as it was called, garnered widespread attention in New York and abroad, with Black artists, intellectuals, and politicians singing its praises.
When Raven died in 2002, his family gutted the museum and sold the property, destroying his life's work and outraging the community. For years, Raven's prized, handmade wax statues were thought to have been lost to history, either discarded or even melted down by his relatives. But were they? Part character study and part detective story, Raven explores the unforgettable man who founded Harlem's first and only wax museum as well as the fate of the one-of-a-kind waxworks that stood on display there.
If you like Raven, you might also like Gavin's other podcast, The Art of Crime. It's a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts. New theme each season.
Raven is a production of Drum and Monkey Media.
When Raven died in 2002, his family gutted the museum and sold the property, destroying his life's work and outraging the community. For years, Raven's prized, handmade wax statues were thought to have been lost to history, either discarded or even melted down by his relatives. But were they? Part character study and part detective story, Raven explores the unforgettable man who founded Harlem's first and only wax museum as well as the fate of the one-of-a-kind waxworks that stood on display there.
If you like Raven, you might also like Gavin's other podcast, The Art of Crime. It's a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts. New theme each season.
Raven is a production of Drum and Monkey Media.
Hosts:
Update frequency:
every 11 days
Average audio length:
47 minutes
Guest interviews
English
United States
8 episodes
since Jan. 18, 2026
serial
IN THIS PODCAST 🔗
OLDEST EPISODE 🔗
Raven is a podcast about the unforgettable man who founded the African American Wax Museum and the extraordinary people who went out of their way to keep its memory alive.
For images of Raven and the African American Wax Museum, follow Gavin on Instagram and Blue Sky: @gavinwhitehead430.
PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
Raven Chanticleer was a larger-than-life eccentric and multi-talented artist. In 1989, Raven fulfilled his long-held dream of opening a wax museum devoted to Black history in Harlem. The African American Wax Museum, as it was called, garnered widespread attention in New York and abroad, gaining a r…
When Raven Chanticleer died in 2002, his nieces and nephews shuttered the African American Wax Museum and made plans to sell the property, outraging members of the community. Several New Yorkers intervened in an effort to stop the family from destorying Raven's legacy before it was too late.
If yo…
Raven liked to tell visitors to the African American Wax Museum that his was the first and only wax museum devoted to Black history. But that wasn't true. Today, we take a trip to the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum of Baltimore. It turns out you learn a lot about why Raven's wax museum died al…
Early on in the process of researching this miniseries, I learned that a mysterious interior designer had rediscovered a handful of Raven's long-lost wax statues and saved them from certain destruction. Today, I track him down to talk about the rescue effort.
If you like Raven, you might like G…
Today, I talk to Stanley Watson, Raven's nephew, about why the family disregarded Raven's dying wishes and closed his museum.
If you like Raven, you might like Gavin's other podcast, The Art of Crime. It's a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts.
Rave…
Today, I'm sharing a sample of my other project, The Art of Crime, a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts. It's a two-part episode about singer, dancer, and actress Josephine Baker, who also worked as a spy for the French Resistance during World War II. This…
This is part two of a two-part episode about Josephine Baker that I made for my other project, The Art of Crime, a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts. The Baker episodes are part of my sixth season, Spy vs, Spy, which looks at artists who engaged in espion…
You have seen all episodes of this podcast
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gavin Whitehead, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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