Anna Deveare Smith, an award-winning playwright and actor, will speak at Northwestern’s Evanston Campus during the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at 11 a.m. Jan. 19 at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. The program will be broadcast live in Owen L. Coon Forum in Leverone Hall and Ryan Family Auditorium in Technological Institute, as well as on the Web.
“Ms. Deveare Smith is an individual of prominence,” said Stephen Fisher, associate provost for undergraduate education and an MLK Day committee member. “She is a young professional who is actively involved in the civil rights movement, and the race issues she addresses in the course of her career are very relevant to our observance of Martin Luther King Day.”
Deveare Smith made a name for herself with her one-woman production “Fires in the Mirror” in 1992, which was part of her “On the Road: The Search for American Character” series. The play explores the racial tensions in a small Brooklyn community after a black child is killed by a car driven by a Jewish man and a Jewish scholar is stabbed to death in retaliation. It was the runner-up for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize.
“I’m very excited about (Deveare Smith) coming to Northwestern,” said Tamara Kagel, Associated Student Government student services vice president. “I’ve read works of hers in two previous classes, and I’m a huge fan.”
In 1996, Deveare Smith received the MacArthur Foundation Fellows Award, known as the Genius Award.
Her Deveare acting credits also include a guest appearance as an intelligence advisor to the president on “The West Wing” and small roles in “Dave” (1993), “Philadelphia” (1993) and “The American President” (1995). Her more recent work includes “The Human Stain” (2003) with Nicole Kidman.
“Her experience in film gives her a different perspective as a speaker and she will probably appeal to a lot of students because of it,” Kagel said.
Deveare Smith has taught at Yale University, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University and the University of Southern California. She also worked as a correspondent for Newsweek.
The winner of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Creative Expression Competition — an essay, poetry and prose contest — will have the opportunity to have dinner with Deveare Smith after reading his or her submission at Pick-Staiger during the program. Submissions are no longer being accepted and the winner will be announced Jan. 9.
