Category: IN THE PRESS

Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field will be available in print on May 21st, 2019.

In creating this, her latest play, Smith interviewed over two hundred and fifty people in the United States and abroad. Twenty of those individuals are rendered in the final published script; individuals who have lived and fought the system that pushes students of color out of the classroom and into prisons. (As Smith has put it: “Rich kids get mischief, poor kids get pathologized and incarcerated.”) Using people’s own words, culled from interviews and speeches, Smith introduces us to Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant, who eulogized Freddie Gray; Niya Kenny, a high school student who confronted a violent police deputy; activist Bree Newsome, who took the Confederate flag down from the South Carolina State House grounds; and many others. Their voices bear powerful witness to a great iniquity of our time—and call us to action with their accounts of resistance and hope.

Notes from the Field is available for pre-order now at Penguin Random House. It will also be available as an e-book and an audiobook.

 

Anna Deavere Smith interviews Esperanza Spalding about her record 12 Little Spells. This conversation was recorded before a live audience at The Strand bookstore in New York City on May 17, 2019.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences recently announced the election of its new members for 2019; recognizing the outstanding achievements of individuals in academia, the arts, business, government, and public affairs. Anna Deavere Smith is deeply honored to be included in this year’s class.

 

Smith recently penned a tribute to architect and pioneer Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang with TIME Magazine, who named her among 2019’s 100 Most Influential People.