Question: When did theater first spark your interest?
Anna Deavere Smith: Well I didn’t really become involved in the theater until after I got out of college. When I was a younger woman, for example, I wanted to be a linguist. And I thought that maybe there was some sort of job that I could have ultimately that would have to do with learning many languages and doing something about these things we’ve been talking about, how people don’t get along very well.
And it’s interesting that I wanted to learn other languages and take that into the world, because I could have said well, I wanted to follow on the heels of Martin Luther King and do something about race relations in this country. But I really had a desire to be in the world, and to try to do something about “tribalism”. And I thought that one way to do that--and I use “tribalism” in quotations--discord between groups. And I thought that language was a part of that somehow. So I guess I thought that being able to talk to one another, as trivial as that sounds, I think I really believed in that possibility as a young woman.
And when I was in college, a lot of things happened in this country that left many of us in kind of a quandary as to what we should do with ourselves and with the country. Martin Luther King was killed when I was in college. And so I went away to California with the notion that I would so something in social change. But by the time I got there, which was the early ‘70s, the movement was really over. People were just beginning to assemble themselves, I think, to become what became the Yuppies of the 1980s. So that was like over. Nobody was into questioning things anymore. There was a sense that people were just trying to put things back together.
And in that period, I happened to go to an acting class pretty much, kind of accidentally. And I thought, “Oh my goodness. Everyone’s changing.” So I thought this would be a great laboratory in which to study change with the expectation that I would then go ahead and do something about social change. But once I got that bug – not so much the bug of acting, I have to say, but more the bug of the study of it – the bug of the process of creativity really took me by storm and changed my life. And so in three years, I sort of redirected my goals completely.
Recorded on: Aug 22, 2007
Discuss
Barry Deutsch on January 7, 2008, 1:11 PM
I feel isolated by both parties. I do not approve of the "nanny state" approach of mainstream Democrats and I am fearful of Christian Fundamentalism. We need a centrist party, not just centrist candidates who constantly fail to win primaries.
Mark Besse on January 7, 2008, 5:14 PM
In most other countries there are two centrist parties and multiple fringe parties which exert influence disproportional to their strength. They become the king makers.
Barry Deutsch on January 7, 2008, 6:11 PM
I feel isolated by both parties. I do not approve of the “nanny state” approach of mainstream Democrats and I am fearful of Christian Fundamentalism. We need a centrist party, not just centrist candidates who constantly fail to win primaries.
Mark Besse on January 7, 2008, 10:14 PM
In most other countries there are two centrist parties and multiple fringe parties which exert influence disproportional to their strength. They become the king makers.
Greg Nixon on January 11, 2008, 12:47 PM
Parties are irrelevant when elections are fraudulent. Politics in the U.S. are now a show like pro wrestling. The real players are the people the run our country,Private military contractors. ES&S Lockheed Martin anyone? Media is military, elections are military.USA = crypto fascist pmc dictatorship.
Greg Nixon on January 11, 2008, 5:47 PM
Parties are irrelevant when elections are fraudulent. Politics in the U.S. are now a show like pro wrestling. The real players are the people the run our country,Private military contractors. ES&S Lockheed Martin anyone? Media is military, elections are military.USA = crypto fascist pmc dictatorship.
Nathan Laswell on January 17, 2008, 2:49 PM
Here's what I think:
I, (insert name), am running for president. I'm running in the "ME" party. I have my own views and beliefs on running this country and making this the greatest country in the world. I don't need a name to label my status on America's issues. Listen to my speeches, debates, and answers and decide that you want "ME" as president of the United States of America, but whatever you do, don't vote for me based on whether I'm an elephant or a donkey.
Nathan Laswell on January 17, 2008, 7:49 PM
Here’s what I think:
I, (insert name), am running for president. I’m running in the “ME” party. I have my own views and beliefs on running this country and making this the greatest country in the world. I don’t need a name to label my status on America’s issues. Listen to my speeches, debates, and answers and decide that you want “ME” as president of the United States of America, but whatever you do, don’t vote for me based on whether I’m an elephant or a donkey.
Brian Rosenblatt on January 19, 2008, 5:33 PM
Well said dellas34. Too bad the "ME" party didn't get enough votes in the last election so they won't let you debate.
Brian Rosenblatt on January 19, 2008, 10:33 PM
Well said dellas34. Too bad the “ME” party didn’t get enough votes in the last election so they won’t let you debate.
Nick S on February 6, 2008, 9:31 PM
This is going to be a sad year for this country, this is the year the world gets to see just how ignorant and bigoted we are. As much as Americans are screaming for change, and demanding a new direction, Yet vote the same TRASH back in office. Watching the primaries, and debates, it's simple to see the "good ole american" pride coming through. In the end, these back woods ignorant people will refuse to vote in a Woman or a Black man to office. So whats that leave us? An idiot, and a Nazi. Hopefully we'll get the idiot, the last one screwed everything up, but atleast he didn't abliterate an entire culture (Tried, but didn't succeed.)
Wander if Amsterdam is taking any new immigrants?
Nick S on February 7, 2008, 2:31 AM
This is going to be a sad year for this country, this is the year the world gets to see just how ignorant and bigoted we are. As much as Americans are screaming for change, and demanding a new direction, Yet vote the same TRASH back in office. Watching the primaries, and debates, it’s simple to see the “good ole american” pride coming through. In the end, these back woods ignorant people will refuse to vote in a Woman or a Black man to office. So whats that leave us? An idiot, and a Nazi. Hopefully we’ll get the idiot, the last one screwed everything up, but atleast he didn’t abliterate an entire culture (Tried, but didn’t succeed.)
Wander if Amsterdam is taking any new immigrants?
Asha M on February 7, 2008, 3:19 PM
we need a happy middle thats not just a small 3rd party that can hardly compete, but a major party that can statisfy the moderate thinker.
Asha M on February 7, 2008, 8:19 PM
we need a happy middle thats not just a small 3rd party that can hardly compete, but a major party that can statisfy the moderate thinker.
Edward C on March 26, 2008, 8:18 PM
Mr. McCain – did you realize you were related to the Obama and the Clinton families?
Doug Newman on March 26, 2008, 8:20 PM
randomthought's assertion that: "In most other countries there are two centrist parties and multiple fringe parties which exert influence disproportional to their strength" reflects the triumph of ideology over reality; the assertion is simply not true. Most democracies have more than two major parties. Americans worship the two-party system and cannot admit that other countries manage successful governments with many parties.
Edward C on March 27, 2008, 12:18 AM
Mr. McCain – did you realize you were related to the Obama and the Clinton families?
Doug Newman on March 27, 2008, 12:20 AM
randomthought’s assertion that: “In most other countries there are two centrist parties and multiple fringe parties which exert influence disproportional to their strength” reflects the triumph of ideology over reality; the assertion is simply not true. Most democracies have more than two major parties. Americans worship the two-party system and cannot admit that other countries manage successful governments with many parties.
Vicki Nikolaidis on November 8, 2008, 1:53 PM
No. Two parties are not enough to reflect the variety of people and ideas throughout the U.S. We need to redo our system of voting from the way we cast our ballots all the way to getting rid of the electoral college. Messy messy! I know but the two largest parties are falling into a black hole of sameness when we most need other ideas, energy and momentum!
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