Category: Anna Deavere Smith

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith teacher

Anna Deavere Smith | teacher

I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made friends that way, actually. That was a very subversive activity, because I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. But if I went off in the corner and mimicked the teacher, people loved it.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith society

Anna Deavere Smith | society

When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job at all. A lot of people hiring African American actresses – it was right after ‘Roots,’ and for society, not me, it was great. Nice richly dark-skinned people was the fashion, and I was not.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith society

Anna Deavere Smith | society

My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has been stingy and selfish, and it has to do better.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith | respect

To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after – there’s a strong respect for that in African culture.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith politics

Anna Deavere Smith | politics

Somehow we can’t live outside the politics of race. There’s something very deep in all of us, that is taught to us when we are very, very little. Which is the disrespect and fear of the other.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith movies

Anna Deavere Smith | movies

Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith learning

Anna Deavere Smith | learning

Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith leadership

Anna Deavere Smith | leadership

I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the person right next to us, but the folks across the way.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith inspirational

Anna Deavere Smith | inspirational

President Obama called for a ‘we’ nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that’s what we need most in our country today.

Categories
Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith | imagination

I made a real specific decision when I came out of school and most artists were writing about home – if you were a woman, you were writing about being a woman – and I decided not to do that, write about what you know. That’s not what I do. I went as far away from home as possible in terms of the development of my imagination.

Deep tissue massage for facial pain. Get bento boxes for back to school – only $5. Love ghost and cinnamon babe.