Law school welcomes
Anna Deavere Smith as
guest narrator

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, author and teacher. When her work was recognized with a prestigious MacArthur Award, it was described as “a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie.”

Among her many honors, Ms. Smith received the 2007 Kitty Carlisle Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts from Americans for the Arts and the 2007 New York Mayor's Award for Art and Culture. She was the recipient of the 2006 Alphonse Fletcher Fellowship, which recognizes work by scholars, writers and artists who address and carry out the broad social goals of the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision of 1954. She was twice nominated for the NAACP Image Award. She will receive the prestigious New York Women in Communication's Matrix Award for her remarkable achievements and outstanding leadership roles in her field in Spring 2008.

Her work in the theater has been her intellectual focus, but she also has performed in film and television. She is well-known for her role as National Security Advisor Nancy McNally on the hit show, “The West Wing” and has been featured in several films, including “The American President,” “The Human Stain,” “Dave,” and “Rent.” She co-starred in HBO's 2007 film, “Life Support.” 

Ms. Smith is University Professor at New York University, where she is on the faculty in the Tisch School of the Arts and teaches in the School of Law. She was Ann O'Day Maples Professor of the Arts at Stanford University, where she taught from 1990 – 2000. She also taught at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Southern California and was a visiting professor at Yale School of Medicine. She recently taught, at the invitation of Oprah Winfrey, at Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy For Girls in South Africa.

Her theater combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through her performance. Among her works are the critically acclaimed Broadway Show “Twilight: Los Angeles,” about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and “Fires in the Mirror,” which examined a race riot that occurred in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (1991) when age old racial tensions between Black and Jewish neighbors exploded. It received an Obie Award, numerous other awards and was a runner up for the Pulitzer Prize. She is developing a new play on the subject of the resilience and vulnerability of the human body, which was inspired by her work at Yale.

Her book, “Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines,” is based on her observations of time she spent in Washington, D.C. To prepare for that book, she followed both President Clinton and Bob Dole on their 1996 campaign trails. Her articles and writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, O Magazine, O Home, Elle, The Atlantic,,  A Public Space, Essence, Fortune, and The Drama Review. Her latest book is “Letters to a Young Artist.”