When renowned artist and puppeteer Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins took the stage at BU Central, all eyes weren’t on him. They were on his latest creation, Crush, a puppet made out of cardboard and cloth with two shining green eyes. With the help of his puppet, Pipkins hosted Boston University’s first puppet slam Saturday evening.

Puppets take the stage and act out a white man’s eulogy regarding the death of his black friend, unfolding as a series of vignettes and memories about his life before it was brutally taken by the Ku Klux Klan. The small figures bring to life part of the United States’ dark, racist past.