Advance tickets are no longer available. There may be some free tickets at the door as of 5 p.m. Additional seating will be offered for an adjacent room with a live closed-circuit broadcast of the event.

Reception from 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Smith will perform parts of a work-in-progress and will discuss her ongoing research for a new play she is writing on the subject of the school-to- prison pipeline.  She will be joined after her presentation for an on-stage discussion with Stanford Graduate School of Education professors Prudence Carter and Sean Reardon. 

Smith is an actress and playwright who is said to have created a new form of theater.  She has won numerous awards, among them two Obies, two Tony nominations, a Drama Desk Award, the Susan V. Berresford Fellowship from United States Artists, a MacArthur fellowship and the 2013 prestigious Gish Prize. In 2012, President Obama awarded her the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. She was runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for her play Fires in the Mirror.  Her work, in a series called "On The Road: A Search for American Character," combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance.  She currently plays hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus on Showtime's hit series Nurse Jackie.  Additional screen credits include The West Wing, The American President, Rachel Getting Married, Life Support, and others.  Honorary degrees include those from Juilliard, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Northwestern, Haverford, and Radcliffe.  She has served as Artist in Residence at several organizations and as varied as MTV Networks and Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.  She is a professor at New York University. She founded and directs Anna Deavere Smith Works: A Place for Artistic Excellence and Social Change, dedicated to convening and supporting artists whose work addresses the world’s most pressing challenges. 

This event is in partnership with Stanford Live and the Workshop on Poverty, Inequality, and Education.

If you need a disability-related accommodation, please contact Sheila Sanchez in the Diversity & Access Office, at (650) 725-0326, or sheilas@stanford.edu.   Requests should be made by April 16.