Public Discussion with Anna Deavere Smith and Samora Pinderhughes

Friday, January 24, 2025 at 7:00pm
Crowell Concert Hall

Free and open to the public.

Anna Deavere Smith Hon. ’97, the 2024–2025 CFA Artist in Residence, will engage in a discussion about method and mentorship with musician and composer Samora Pinderhughes.

Read Anna Deavere Smith Starts Yearlong Artist Residency in The Wesleyan Connection.

“This is a performance class. The body knows,” writes Smith, who will lead a workshop, “Performance as a Way of Knowing” from Tuesday, January 21 through Saturday, January 25, 2025 using performance exercises developed over decades of teaching and drawing on her verbatim-theater method to invite participants to become acquainted with parts of themselves and of each other that may not be obvious. Wesleyan University undergraduate students who are passionate leaders, interested in civic engagement, and concerned to find ways of communicating across our differences, were invited to apply. The goal is not necessarily to produce artists, but to explore how the arts are essential to being agents of change in the world. The work will also explore worlds and circumstances that, on first glance, appear to be far from the “self.” 

Learn more about Anna Deavere Smith's artist residency at Wesleyan. 

Photo of Anna Deavere Smith by Mark Brendel, Perceptions Photography.