+1 862 207 3288 In her introduction to Twilight: Los Angeles(Focus on the book itself not the play), 1992, Anna Deavere Smith considers the relationship between the riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King with the Watts Riots, which broke out in LA in August 1965 also following an act of police violence. Today, the play resonates with the social movements organized under the banner and hashtag #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) after the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Jonathan Ferrell, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose and Freddie Gray, among others, at the hands of the police. Write an essay in which you explore how Smith’s performance piece helps us understand our own moment of wide-scale black resistance. Smith urges us to really listen to the voices of all those she interviewed for the performance. How does the imperative to listen–rather than simply respond or react–disrupt out own assumptions or attitudes about racial and/or economic privilege, the “right” to free speech, expression, association, and assembly, access to the public sphere, etc? Which monologues in Smith’s performance challenged you the most?
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