Defiance! Cutting Stone, Carving Survival

Defiance! Cutting Stone, Carving Survival a play based on the diaries and personal letters of sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890-1960), African American Narragansett-Pequot, and the first graduate of color from Rhode Island School of Design in 1918. Prophet endured enormous challenges as a minority female artist often without food. The play is written, directed, and performed by Sylvia Ann Soares and includes actors Jeannie Mae Carson and Jason Quinn. Included in the production are visuals of Prophet’s work and life.
As “Nancy Elizabeth Prophet in Living History” Soares has performed numerous readings of Prophet’s diary with the first also at RISD in 2014. Soares’ diary presentations evolved into salon conversations and a developing play funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
Free
This program is funded by by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly.