PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Oct. 4, 2022) – On Oct. 19, the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center at Prairie View A&M University will host a screening of “Notes from the Field,” a dramatization of an award-winning play by Anna Deavere Smith that depicts the school-to-prison pipeline. A moderated discussion with Smith and members of the University community will follow the screening.
“We are thrilled to host Ms. Smith for a screening of her powerful film and for our students to hear directly from Ms. Smith as she discusses America’s school-to-prison pipeline, which pushes underprivileged youth out of the classroom and into incarceration,” said Camille Gibson, interim dean of the College of Juvenile Justice and executive director of the TJCPC at PVAMU. The TJCPC is the only center of its kind in Texas that focuses on reducing juvenile delinquency and crime.
Debuting as a play in 2015, “Notes from the Field” was written and performed by Smith. It drew from more than 250 interviews with students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in the school-to-prison pipeline. The play was adapted into a television movie by HBO and premiered in 2018. It tackles questions of race and class through first-person stories.
Smith is a playwright and actress credited with having created a new form of theater. According to her website, “she has, for four decades, used theatre and movies to reveal the effects of inequality and discord on American communities.” Her plays, which focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view, are composed of excerpts of hundreds of interviews. Plays and films include “Fires in the Mirror,” “Twilight: Los Angeles,” and “Let Me Down Easy.” Her work as an actress on television includes “Inventing Anna,” “The West Wing,” “Nurse Jackie,” and “Black-ish.” Mainstream movies include “Philadelphia,” “The American President,” “Rachel Getting Married,” and Billy Crystal’s new movie “Here Today.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Smith the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. Smith is also the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, the George Polk Award in Journalism, and the Dean’s Medal from Stanford University School of Medicine. Smith was a runner-up for a Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for two Tony Awards.
Today, Smith is a professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has several honorary doctorate degrees, including those from Harvard University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Spelman College, The Juilliard School and University of Oxford.
Additional information and registration for PVAMU’s Oct. 19 event can be found here.
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