Anna Deavere Smith blog 2

Transcript of conversation with Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith: First of all, the award is coming from two elements of society. One is the element of art, and I really admire Robert Lynch and Americans for the Arts and for the ways they’ve constantly tried to assert the value of arts in civic space. So number one the fact they are able to have, that that organization, that presence in the Conference in Mayors is an achievement so I applaud them. But you know mayors are the people who take care of their people in a city. To me, it’s the earthiest of the kinds of leadership that we have other than maybe a really good pastor in a church, or a really good school principal, or a really good school superintendent. They’re really taking care of their cities and the people. So to be honored among them, in their presence, by an organization that has done so much for the arts means a lot to me. Because I believe artists have an opportunity to make a difference specifically because we can say things that politicians and other leaders can’t say. When I did a project here in Washington a very, very successful scholar of Thomas Jefferson said to me, that Thomas Jefferson “could never be found in verbal undress. “ So people who are in civic positions have to watch what they say.  Artists, especially comedians, and I’m not one; I mean think about somebody so gifted as Wanda Sykes or Chris Rock, the kind of stuff they say. It’s funny but it’s also true. And it’s important that it be spoken. I’m not there. I’m somewhere in the middle of all that. But I like to think that what I try to do is, in particular, champion vulnerable people and that the fact that that’s being congratulated means a lot to me. Because a lot of time what gets congratulated is just that which champions the mighty. So it’s not so much about me, it’s about the fact of the content of what I’m doing is meaningful to people is what means so much to me.