* Please note, RSVPs are appreciated but do not guarantee entry on the day of the event. Guests will be seated on a first come, first serve basis. Please arrive early to guarantee your seat.
Open to: In-person - Emerson students, faculty, and staff and community members on a first come, first serve basis | Online - Emerson community, including alumni
Event DetailsTitle: Keynote Address: "Talking About Race"
Date: Friday, February 17
Time: 9:30 - 11am EST
Location: Robert J. Orchard Theater, Paramount Center
COVID-19 Policy: Per Emerson College's Office of the Arts' protocol, all attendees and program participants must wear a well-fitted 3-ply face mask at all times when indoors at the theatre, except while actively eating or drinking concessions. N95s, KN95s, and surgical masks are recommended. No gaiters, bandanas, or masks with vents allowed.
Recording: The livestream version of this event will be recorded, which may include Q&A and other sessions.
About This Event
Playwright, actor, and educator Anna Deavere Smith uses her singular brand of theatre to explore issues of community, character, and diversity in America. The MacArthur Foundation honored Smith with the “Genius” Fellowship for creating “a new form of theatre — a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie.”
Her play, Notes from the Field, was the winner of an Obie Award, the 2017 Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, and was named one of the Top 10 Plays of the year by Time magazine. Among Smith’s other awards are the 2012 National Humanities Medal, the 2015 Jefferson Lecturer honor, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2017 Ridenhour Courage Prize, and the George Polk Career Award for authentic journalism.
Smith is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University and a Professor at Tisch School of the Arts. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at MTV Networks, the Ford Foundation, and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Smith was appointed to Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2017 U.S. Mayors Challenge Committee, a nationwide competition urging innovative solutions for the toughest issues confronting U.S. cities.
More About Anna Deavere Smith
For decades Anna Deavere Smith, who is said to have pioneered a form of documentary-style drama, has been listening to people across the country from all walks of life, using Walt Whitman’s idea “to absorb America” as an inspiration. During this presentation, to illustrate her goal of bringing “people across the chasms” of “the complex identities of America,” Ms. Smith will include theatrical performance elements, portraying people she has interviewed – and recreating a diversity of emotions and points of view on questions of race and social justice. Listening and empathy have the power to transform — a person, a relationship, a moment, a movement. In her art and activism, Smith insists: you must develop your ear to have a voice. With tensions high, the country divided, her call to listen feels as urgent now as ever.
