Tempestuous Elements

Born into slavery in North Carolina, Anna Julia Cooper was a visionary Black feminist and educator in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and only the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree. Tempestuous Elements — the 11th in Arena Stage’s Power Play cycle — shines a light on Cooper’s tumultuous tenure as Principal of Washington, D.C.’s historic M Street School where she fought to keep Black education alive, despite the racism, gossip, and sexism that threatened to consign her efforts to obscurity.