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 …
Author
Anna Deavere Smith
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About Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in The West Wing (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–15), and U.S. District Court Clerk Tina Krissman on the ABC show For the People (2018–19).
Read on Wikipedia → Find books by Anna Deavere SmithWhen 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…
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.
To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after - there's a strong respect for that in African culture.
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.
Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.
Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
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.
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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 hea…
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 ab…
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 ab…
I think it's really important to give yourself a very big question that you're working on that you can come home to, even if you, you know, are going to have to go without a cup of coffee or even a m…
The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier, the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.
Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.
The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier, the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.
I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment.
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.
Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
People who are sick, or who have been sick, or have come close to death have a lot to say - and they want you to hear it.
Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we've all been heavily sedated from it. If we don't come into consciousness of this tragedy, there's going to be a violent awakenin…