DESCRIPTION OF PIECE

Witness the frustrations and successes of RI BIPOC sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890-1960,) the 1st known graduate of the RI School of Design (1918.) Sylvia Ann Soares based her solo on Prophet’s diary and extended research. Prophet, born in Warwick, RI starved in Paris through studies and exhibits. Her close friend W.E.B. DuBois brought her to teach at Spelman College. Her works are in the Permanent Collections at RISD and the Whitney and on loan at the Newport Museum.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sylvia Ann Soares, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, Brown ‘95. In 1962 she joined Trinity Rep and then toured overseas. NY shows included Off-Broadway with Woodie King, Jr.; at Papp’s Public Theatre; with Sonia Sanchez; in Imamu Baraka’s Slave Ship. Regionals included McCarter, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Ford’s Theatre DC. Trinity Rep again. National tours were with the Negro Ensemble Company’s Tony Award play The River Niger, and in the first Black Pulitzer Prize Play No Place to Be Somebody. Television appearances include Kojak, Baretta, Police Story, Delvecchio, Good Times, and Delancey Street. Locally, she performs poetry and solos of BIPOC sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, enslaved RIer ‘Silvy Tory,’ and mostly at Rites and Reason Theatre.