Noted playwright, actor and professor Anna Deveare Smith will deliver the keynote address for the School of Medicine's program observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 19.
"Snapshots: Glimpses of America in Change" is the theme of the 1 p.m. program, which will be held in Sterling Hall of Medicine's Mary S. Harkness Auditorium at 333 Cedar St. The program is free and open to the public. A reception for all will be held at 3 p.m. in the Beaumont Room.
During the program, the school also will present its annual Distinguished Community Service Awards to medical and public health students.
"Anna Deveare Smith is possibly the most compelling and expressive voice currently engaged in the national discussion of race relations," says Dr. Forrester A. Lee, assistant dean for multicultural affairs. "She speaks with courage, insight and authority as she dissects through raw emotions and anger to discover pathways to shared understanding and compassion."
Ms. Smith is best known as the author/performer of two one-woman plays about racial tensions in American cities: "Twilight: Los Angeles," which earned two Tony nominations in 1992 and won an Obie award, and "Fires in the Mirror," runner-up for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize and an Obie Award winner. The plays are part of her continuous series called "On the Road: A Search for the American Character," in which she explores issues of race, class and gender in America's multi-faceted national identity.
The Ann O'Day Maples Professor of the Arts at Stanford University, Ms. Smith was recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius" fellowship for creating a "new form of theater -- a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie." A Newsweek article hailed her as "the most exciting individual in American theater," and she has been profiled on television.