Art in a time of war: Anna Deavere Smith

Many thanks to Kintespace for [originally sharing] this compilation of video interviews with Anna Deavere Smith, noting:

/////"Appropriately, Anna’s 2006 book, Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind, goes into detail about how to approach the role of “artist” in the greatest empire television has ever seen."/////

And Smith [on Democracy Now! the other day]:

/////"...although I did a lot of other things over the last eight years, I really didn’t have a desire to make theater about anything else other than the—our bodies, their power and their vulnerability. [...] I suppose I’m in the process. Having done so many interviews, around 300 for this, everybody that I talked to understands something that I don’t understand. And the twenty who are in the show right now definitely do that. And I think every night that I go out there, I’m struggling with one of the kernels of what they understand to try to increase my understanding. And I guess what I understand the most from this whole experience is that life is precious and that while it’s here, we have to—we should not miss the opportunity of saturating ourselves in its richness."/////

Her one-woman show is currently playing at [Second Stage Theatre in NYC]. I had the chance to see it and it's amazing how she is able to literally channel these people whose words she memorized, word for word, from interviews she conducted with them. Very much the oral history tradition.

Smith on art in a time of war on Democracy Now!:





Farai Chideya talks to Anna Deavere Smith:



Today Show segment: