Tempestuous Elements  at Arena Stage

Born into slavery in North Carolina, Anna Julia Cooper was a visionary Black feminist and educator in the late 19th/early 20thcenturies, and only the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree.Tempestuous Elements—the 11thin Arena Stage’s Power Play cycle—shines a light on Anna Julia 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.