"Faces of Phillis" a Staged Reading and Panel Discussion

The Associates of the Boston Public Library is proud to present Faces of Phillis, a free staged reading and panel discussion, as the fifth installment of the annual Pierce Performance Series. The one and only performance will take place on December 4th, from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM in the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Hall.

Faces of Phillis will celebrate Phillis Wheatley Peters on the 250th anniversary of the publication of Phillis’s groundbreaking book Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.

A recording of the event will be available for only one week on Vimeo (December 6th – December 13th). To receive the link to the virtual performance, please sign up here.

For more information about our collaborators, please see our Pierce Performance website.

The three-part evening will feature:
1 . A staged reading of “Faces of Phillis” by British-Nigerian playwright Ade Solanke, and directed by Regge Life. The reading will dramatize key moments from Phillis Wheatley Peters’ life. A talented ensemble of actors will portray historical figures, including Phillis Wheatley Peters, Obour Tanner, John Peters, Scipio Moorhead, and Elizabeth Freeman.

2 . A panel discussion moderated by Lisa Rafferty. The panel will feature Ade Solanke, our playwright, Meredith Bergmann, the sculptor for the 2003 Boston Women’s Memorial, and Kyera Singleton, the Executive Director of the Royall House Museum.

3 . A dramatic poetry reading by the City of Boston’s Poet Laureate and BPL Trustee, Porsha Olayiwola. Porsha will perform a dramatic reading of one of Phillis’s poems, as well as her own work inspired by Phillis.