In a Near-Full Sanders Theatre, Harvard Welcomes Anna Deavere Smith

Last week, Harvard welcomed Anna Deavere Smith after her successful run at the American Repertory Theater with the one-woman show “Notes From the Field: Doing Time in Education.” Presented by the Mahindra Humanities Center, the fifth Rita E. Hauser Forum for the Arts, entitled “Radical Hospitality,” drew a large crowd to Sanders Theatre on Wednesday evening.

University President Drew G. Faust introduced Smith by recalling the impact Smith made on the arts at Harvard as a Bunting Institute fellow at Radcliffe in 1992. She then welcomed the director of the Mahindras Humanities Center, Homi K. Bhabha. Both speakers alluded to broader political developments on campus and off. Bhabha, in his remarks to Faust, made reference to the first day of the Harvard University Dining Services strike, which was audible outside. “Nothing that happens in the wider world or on this campus ever affects your wit, your warmth or your hospitality,” he said. In his introduction of Smith, he also mentioned the current political climate. “The United States has an immensity, its eyes set on big things, big numbers, and big combovers,” Bhabha said, to laughter from the audience. “Anna Deavere Smith, meanwhile, provides a sharp contrast in scale. She stands before us as singular and unadorned.”

Smith’s talk, which included direct address to the audience as well as a one-woman staging of several acted anecdotes, pressed hard on issues of racial inequalities and religious discrimination. “We must finally learn to tolerate the presence of each other,” she said as the talk reached the thesis of “Radical Hospitality.”

Throughout the performance, Smith described her own experiences of receiving radical hospitality. “Hospitality is not making dinner,” she said. “It’s how you place yourself in relationships.” She also spoke about the present inequities within the arts, noting that the way art is created and displayed is unfair. “The ecosystem of opportunity is unjust,” Smith said. “Inequality abounds.”

She quoted the average compensation for leaders in nonprofit theatres, garnering audible gasps from the audience when she cited the highest recorded payment in nonprofit theatres as being $608,000, while leaders of African American theatres made at most $110,000. That figure, she added, reached just $88,000 for Latino companies. “To whom is hospitality extended?” Smith asked.

Many attendees responded positively to the performance. Dylan J. Goodman, who works for a labor union, came from Worcester, Mass. to hear Smith speak. “I think that Anna Deavere Smith takes her audience on a journey into hurt while also giving us the potential to have redemption,” he said. “She gives the audience an opportunity to have these very difficult conversations and turn feelings of anger or guilt into action.”

Michael S. Gomez, a graduate student at the A.R.T., was similarly complimentary. “I saw [Smith’s] show when she was performing with the A.R.T., and so getting to hear her thoughts on what inspires her and gets her brain thinking about social issues was really fascinating. I thought it was very moving, because it really showed how simple, everyday things can have greater repercussions,” he said.

Smith seemed to command the attention of the crowd gathered in Sanders Theater almost effortlessly: Throughout the performance, there were moments of such silence that a pin drop could have been heard. She ended her lecture with a few choice words of advice for her audience. “Confidence is overrated. Give doubt a try,” she said. “Doubt is radical hospitality. Empathy is radical hospitality.”