Two weeks from today, my latest play, Notes from the Field, comes out in print. To write this one, I did over 250 interviews about the vulnerability and resilience of young people, inequality, and justice in America. You can pre-order a copy now through @penguinrandomhouse. Also available as an e-book and an audiobook.
My first trip in Shondaland. Shonda Rhimes is the country’s storyteller in chief. I don’t think any African American woman has ever had as much influence through words. – New episode of #ForThePeople tonight. Read more from my interview in the @latimes. Link in today’s story. – Photo credit: Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times
My character Tina insists on protecting a young boy after his father, a witness in Leonard’s (@rejejean) case, has a run-in with federal agents that could lead to his deportation. New episode of @forthepeopleabc tonight at 10|9c on @abcnetwork. @byshondaland 📷 Mitch Haaseth / ABC
Wow. I just got elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Now here’s one I wish my parents were alive to see. Thanks to whoever nominated me and whoever rooted for me. Whoever you are – I appreciate it! Deeply.
As a person working in the creative “business” I am always amazed by how creative EVERYbody is. @charitytd #marchforourlives
How are we going to manage to get beyond the smallness of our own lives and begin to see ourselves as American citizens broadly? I’m a provocateur. I don’t know the answers, but I can just try to pose the questions. – Read my interview, “Anna Deavere Smith Strives Toward a More Perfect Union,” in The @villagevoice. Link in today’s story. – Photo: Kwaku-Alston / @hbo
I write for @nytimes about the first time a white person used the word “love” in relation to me, when I was in high school in Baltimore. Link in my story. – Photographs by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
“If you say a word often enough it becomes you.” My grandfather told me that. The result is a form of theater and now film. Trekking the country trying to discover America through its words. – #ChangeTheConversation #NotesFromTheField streaming now @hbo
There are a lot of people right now looking to be civically involved, and artists and students of art looking to apply their art to making this world a better, kinder, fairer place. I’m excited about what’s going to happen. – #ChangeTheConversation #NotesFromTheField, streaming now on @hbo.
“Do your part. Honor the sacrifice of those who marched and protested, those who were beaten and left bloody, those who gave the last full measure of devotion so that each and every one of us can exercise our right to vote. You can change America.” – @repjohnlewis Pictured: John Lewis forced to the ground by state troopers in Selma, Ala. on March 7, 1965 during Bloody Sunday. Courtesy AP file photo. #Vote
In December, @emersoncollective invited me to be a part of their Demo Day. I’m thrilled to be able to share some video from the day – link in bio. The portrait I presented was of Bryan Stevenson, of the @eji_org. I interviewed Mr. Stevenson last spring as part of my Pipeline Project, and some of his stories were included in the production of #NotesfromtheField which ran in London that summer.
Rich kids get “mischief.” Poor gets get pathologized and incarcerated. Let’s #ChangeTheConversation. – #NotesFromTheField re-airs today at 8 PM on @hbo 2.
I’m so pleased to be a resident playwright as part of @signaturetheatre’s 2019-2020 season. They’ll be reviving my plays Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, with two exciting young directors at the helm.
So happy to be back in the classroom again. Wonderful, exciting students from NYU Tisch Department of Art and Public Policy. @nyuniversity @nyutisch
Thank you @lilly_works for a great conversation. #ChangeTheConversation #NotesFromTheField @blavity @hbo – Repost from @theccnyc – Do Something. Reactivate Activism. @annadeaveresmith x @lilly_works ✊🏾⚡️
All movements need music. Meet the musician behind #NotesFromTheField, now streaming on @hbo, @marcusshelby. #ChangeTheConversation – Notes From The Field re-airs today, 2/27, at 4 PM on HBO 2 and tomorrow, 2/28, at 8:50 AM and 8 PM on HBO. Be sure to tune in.
Wow. Kristi Zea, director of the #NotesFromTheField HBO film, with the iconic Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, at a screening earlier this month. Man!!!! Spreading the word together about protecting kids.
Honored to be recognized as a vanguard for social justice at the @nyumcsilver Awards earlier this month along with Tarana Burke, Marley Emerson Dias, Erica Ford, Maria Hinojosa, Michael Hurwitz, and Reverend Michael A. Walrond, Jr. @taranajaneen @iammarleydias @ericaford_ilovemylife @maria_la_hinojosa @grownyc @fcbcnyc
Thanks @uscannenberg, it was a very good evening with terrific hosts and fantastic questions from students. – #Repost @uscannenberg ・・・ USC Annenberg welcomed actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith for the third @hbo Diverse Voices Forum event. Sarah Banet-Weiser sat with Deavere Smith who discussed her acting process and her one-woman show, #NotesFromtheField. The documentary-style production which addresses social issues, including the school-to-prison pipeline, has been adapted into a new HBO series, which premiered on Feb. 24th. #ASCJ #ASCJDIVERSEVOICES #ASCJconvo
Excited to share the stage with two powerful voices on the social justice landscape. @chasinggarza @akonadi_oakland 3/6 goo.gl/fnHM6e #womenspeakerseries #insurgentvoices
It was an honor to share a few words about architect and pioneer Jeanne Gang with @time Magazine, who named her among this year’s 100 Most Influential People.
I’ll be in a conversation with the epic Ms. @esperanzaspalding, this Friday, 5/17 at the @strandbookstore in New York. And just so you know, her album #12 Little Spells is healing. Magical. And gorgeously, fabulously, musically-connectedly spellbinding.
Yes! Well said. Art informs culture as much as culture informs art. ・・・ #Repost @samwhiteout ・・・ Got to screen @HBO’s newest project, #NotesFromTheField, last week & it was surreal. · Sat down for brunch with folks from HBO, the star herself (@annadeaveresmith), and @theccnyc to discuss the play, the work, and how we can move towards a solution. #BYBG · Anna transforms into 18 different people she interviewed as she researched the School to Prison Pipeline. Anna shows us that through the heartbreak of this national disgrace, we should be inspired to step up & give every kid the opportunities they deserve. #BeYouBeGreat · 🎥 Debuts on HBO 🗓 Tomorrow, 8pm
Here’s @marcusshelby in the studio recording his essay about the music in my play, Notes from the Field. #flashbackfriday Marcus has been on stage with me in every production of the play to date, and he adds his magnificent bass playing to the audio recording of the book, too! Print and audio versions will be out May 21.
