Arts

Raven

by Gavin Whitehead

Share this ranking Is this your show? Claim it

Listen on Apple Podcasts Pocket Casts RSS feed

Chart positions today · United States

Not on the United States charts we track today.

If you like Raven, try…

The Art of Crime

From Gavin Whitehead

Getty Art + Ideas

Also in Arts

Pilates Body by Raven

Latest episodes

Chapter Five: Legacy

March 13, 2026 · 37 min

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…
Chapter Four: Who the F**k is Kit Kat Girl?

March 6, 2026 · 56 min

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…
Chapter Three: Autopsy of a Wax Museum

February 27, 2026 · 48 min

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…
Chapter Two: A New York Story

February 20, 2026 · 54 min

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…
Chapter One: Wax to the Max

February 13, 2026 · 59 min

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…

Show 1 more episodeShow fewer episodes

Trailer

January 18, 2026 · 2 min

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…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Raven is a podcast about the unforgettable man who founded Harlem's first and only wax museum and the extraordinary people who went out of their way to keep its memory alive. Raven Chanticleer was a multi-talented artist and larger-than-life eccentric. For thirty years, he dreamed of opening a 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 figures were thought to have been lost to history. After an eighteen-month investigation, host Gavin Whitehead discovered that a handful miraculously survived--you just had to know where to look for them. 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.