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Please join us for an evening of conversation with award-winning playwright, performer and NYU University Professor Anna Deavere Smith and scholar, film critic and Columbia University Professor Racquel Gates. Through creativity, scholarship and teaching, each of these dynamic thinkers is on the leading edge of shaping our understanding of art in difficult times. They will discuss their groundbreaking theories regarding resonance and dissonance, and their courageous expansion of what is possible in the public sphere. The conversation will be moderated by Pato Hebert, Chair of Tisch’s Department of Art & Public Policy.
This event is a collaboration between Tisch's Department of Art & Public Policy and the Offices of Diversity and Global Strategic Initiatives.
Anna is an actress, playwright, and educator known for creating a new form of theater. Her notable works include This Ghost of Slavery, Notes from the Field, Let Me Down Easy, Twilight: Los Angeles, and Fires in the Mirror. HBO and PBS have broadcast her plays. Smith has earned numerous accolades, including the National Humanities Medal from President Obama, two Tony nominations, and induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame. As an actress, her credits include Inventing Anna, The West Wing, and Philadelphia. Smith serves on Biden’s President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities, is a University Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and was the 2023 Eastman Professor at Oxford University.
Racquel holds a PhD in Screen Cultures from Northwestern University and an MA from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on blackness and popular culture, particularly how disreputable representations can challenge ideas about blackness and society. She is the author of Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture (2018) and was named an Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2020. Gates engages both academic and popular audiences, with her work featured in The New York Times, Film Quarterly, and numerous podcasts and film programs.
Pato is a visual artist and educator who joined Tisch School of the Arts Department of Art & Public Policy in 2012, serving as Chair since 2020. His students have twice nominated him for the David Payne-Carter Excellence in Teaching Award. Hebert’s artwork explores interconnectedness, focusing on space, place, spirituality, and ecology. He works with photography, sculpture, installation, and socially engaged forms, often collaborating with fellow artists and community members. His projects have been exhibited globally and supported by grants from organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation. Hebert holds an MFA from UC Irvine and a BA from Stanford University, and has taught at several institutions, including Reed College and Scripps College.