Fires in the Mirror

(Paperback)

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Derived from interviews with a wide range ofpeople who experienced or observed New York's 1991Crown Heights racial riots, Fires In TheMirror is as distinguished a work ofcommentary onblack-white tensions as it is awork of drama. In August 1991 simmering tensions in the racially polarized Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood of Crown Heights exploded into riots after a black boy was killed by a car in a rabbi's motorcade and a Jewish student was slain by blacks in retaliation. Fires in the Mirror is dramatist Anna Deavere Smith's stunning exploration of the events and emotions leading up to and following the Crown Heights conflict. Through her portrayals of more than two dozen Crown eights adversaries, victims, and eyewitnesses, using verbatim excerpts from their observations derived from interviews she conducted, Smith provides a brilliant, Rashoman-like documentary portrait of contemporary ethnic turmoil.

Author Bio

Anna Deavere Smith is an actor, a teacher, a playwright, and the creator of an acclaimed series of one-woman plays based on her interviews with diverse voices from communities in crisis. She has won two Obie Awards; two Tony nominations for her play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; and a MacArthur Fellowship. Smith was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play Fires in the Mirror. She has worked in television on The Practiceand The West Wing, andhas had roles in the filmsPhiladelphia,TheAmerican President, andThe Human Stain. Smith is the founder and director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue and is a professor at New York University, with an appointment in the Tisch School of the Arts and an affiliation with the School of Law.