Where and When
Anna Deavere Smith, Reston Community Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday birthday celebration at the Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Hunters Woods, Reston. Events are Sunday, Jan. 18 and Monday, Jan. 19.
- Anna Deavere Smith performance of the one-woman show, "Snapshots: Portraits of a World in Transition" Reston Community Center, CenterStage. Performance: Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015 at 8 p.m. Tickets: $25 for Reston resident, Non-Reston ticket: $50. For tickets call 703-476-4500 or visit www.restoncommunity…
- Anna Deavere Smith Keynote Address at the annual Reston Community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Birthday celebration and community lunch, "Reclaiming Grace in the Face of Adversity," Reston Community Center. Event: Monday, Jan. 19, 2015 at noon. Tickets: $5 for Reston residents, Non-Reston ticket: $10. The address will be followed by the traditional Reston Community Lunch.
For tickets call 703-476-4500 or visit: www.restoncommunity…
For this year's 30th annual Reston Community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday birthday celebration the renowned Anna Deavere Smith will be the keynote speaker at the Monday, Jan. 19 community event. Her address, “Reclaiming Grace in the Face of Adversity," will aim "to highlight the issues of community, character, and diversity in America."
In her remarks actor, playwright and professor Smith is expected to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit, the power of kindness, the strength of imagination and hope while calling attention to the noticeable winner take all society of current days.
In an interview, Smith noted the influence Dr. King had on her own life's work. Dr. King influenced her to be proactive in life; to take action to make change possible. She cited the Dr. King's April 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in which he wrote about the necessity to confront injustice. Smith was in college when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968.
Smith said she is constantly fueled by what she called her "own curiosity since growing up." Smith indicated that great inspiration came from her grandfather who told her, "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you."
In a special Sunday evening Jan. 18 theatrical performance, Smith will present her one-woman, journalistic "Snapshots:Portraits of a World in Transition." It is an fictionalized world based upon her real-life travels across the United States. Before the audience's eyes, Smith will slip in and out of multiple-characters bringing to life those with often over-looked or un-heard points of view on a variety of topical social issues.
The MacArthur Foundation awarded Smith a prestigious fellowship, the so-called "genius grant," for her unique theatrical style. The Foundation cited her for the manner in which "Smith has blended theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reflections to create a new form of theater...that explores the conflicts and searing questions that are transforming American identity and American theater."
Paul Douglas Michnewicz, Reston Community Center, Arts and Events Director noted that "by bringing Anna Deavere Smith to Reston, we are bringing that very conversation to our community." He added that "Robert E. Simon founded Reston on the principles of diversity and racial equality in 1964...The ideas that Dr. King so eloquently expressed and the movement that he inspired are not diminished over these last 50 years."