The enigmatic story of Kea Tawana and her visionary, defiant ark is the basis of a poetic theater piece at Theatre Exile.

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The story of Kea Tawana, the outsider artist who in the 1980s built a three-story ark on a vacant lot in Newark, New Jersey, is making its Philadelphia premiere this weekend at Theatre Exile.

"Kea and the Ark" is an hour-long performance of theater, dance, puppetry and song that takes a poetic approach to the story of an enigmatic, itinerant laborer whose extraordinary creative vision to construct a 125-ton ark from reclaimed housing demolition materials became a political flashpoint in 1987.

The ark, which stood over 30 feet tall and stretched over 80 feet long, was never completed. Tawana worked solo, taking five years to build the structure by hand, using materials gathered from surrounding houses that were being razed by the city of Newark. The project and its controversy attracted national attention.