IN THE PRESS

Anna D. Smith & Michelle Obama

First Lady Michelle Obama greets Anna Deavere Smith in the Cross Hall of the White House following the “Remarkable Women in DC” dinner, March 30, 2011.

(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) This photograph is provided by THE WHITE HOUSE as a courtesy and may be printed by the subject(s) in the photograph for personal use only. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not otherwise be reproduced, disseminated or broadcast, without the written permission of the White House Photo Office. This photograph may not be used in any commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

On the Road

These are a few pictures which were taken during Pipeline’s creation. They represent the locations and people that were encountered along the way while in California during this phase of the project.

Home of the Yurok Tribe. Northern California, Yurok Indian Reservation

Working with a Kindergarten teacher while in Stockton, California

Finding Truth in Doubt with Anna Deavere Smit‪h‬

Every week Chris Hayes asks the big questions that keep him up at night. How do we make sense of this unprecedented moment in world history? Why is this (all) happening? Tonight he covers these tough questions with a special guest, critically acclaimed playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith who crafts groundbreaking art at the intersection of journalism and theater. Listen to the podcast here.

Anna Deavere Smith On What It Takes To Bring About Change

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with actress and writer Anna Deavere Smith about her essay, The Last of the Nice Negro Girls, which is part of The Atlantic’s Inheritance project. Check it out here.

And check out a deeper discussion on The Last of the Nice Negro Girls, forging Black identity, and empowering our defiance with The Inheritance Project presented by The Atlantic.

THE ATLANTIC: We Were the Last of the Nice Negro Girls

In 1968, history found us at a small women’s college, forging our Black identity and empowering our defiance.

My high-school counselor at Western High School, an all-girls public school in Baltimore, was a rotund white woman with a pleasant but less than energetic countenance. She was wholly absent from my education until one day, after rumblings about affirmative action in colleges had begun shaking the ground that Negroes traversed to higher education, she suddenly summoned my mother and me for a meeting. My mother, a veteran teacher in Baltimore’s public schools, took the afternoon off. We sat in the high-ceilinged counseling office, prim and proper as can be, while the counselor showed us one pamphlet after another with images of white girls in sweater sets relaxing in bucolic environments.

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