Sep 9, 2022
In the aftermath of the 1992 LA Uprisings, Anna Deavere Smith crafted TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, a play based on Smith’s interviews with over 200 Los Angeles residents.
30 years later, through the lens of TWILIGHT, we ask: how can the arts advance social justice? Can they help us understand structural racism, as more than individual prejudice? Can they provide models for working through conflict? Can they show us both possibilities and limits to our strategies for social change?
Today we are in conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, distinguished poet and President of the Mellon Foundation. Dr. Alexander was one of the dramaturgs on Twilight; at the time she was teaching at the University of Chicago. Dr. Alexander shows us the transformative power of the arts, humanities, and progressive philanthropy to transform the present and help to create more just, more equitable futures.
The Arts of Racial Reckoning is executive produced by Dorinne Kondo.
This episode was edited by David Badstubner.
The Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture is generously funded by USC Dornsife and the Mellon Foundation.