HBO’s Anna Deavere Smith speaks on ‘Notes from the Field’


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Students and faculty members filled the Wallis Annenberg Hall on Thursday to see actress and writer Anna Deavere Smith speak in the third installment of USC Annenberg-HBO Diverse Voices Forum series. The event was moderated by Director of the School of Communication Sarah Banet-Weiser.

Anna Deavere Smith, an actress, writer and professor, spoke about her upcoming film Notes from the Field. Emily Smith | Daily Trojan

Smith, known widely for her play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, spoke about her upcoming film Notes from the Field, which will premiere Feb. 24 on HBO.

In Notes from the Field, which has been adapted from the stage to the screen, Smith said she depicted the personal accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline, the disproportionate tendency of disadvantaged students end up going from school to prison.

In 2011, Smith was introduced to the concept of the school-to-prison pipeline and recounted the story of a Baltimore child who peed in a watercooler and was taken to jail.

“That really blew my mind!” Smith said. “I couldn’t believe something like that could happen in my hometown. That was when I realized that rich kids, even middle class kids, get the opportunity [to be] mischievous while poor kids are met with a path to prison.”

Smith said that this story served as the catalyst for both her play and Notes from the Field. Drawn from over 250 interviews of people living and working within a challenged system, she said she decided to elucidate a lost generation of American youth through her stimulating portrayal of 18 characters. In them, she hopes to inspire awareness and change.

As an actress that Banet-Weiser said “brings souls to life,” Smith noted that history builds a context in which people won’t pursue a better future.

“The knowledge of history is the opposite of hopelessness,” Smith said. “I want the people that watch this to be inspired to act on it.”

Wyatt Vinchi, a senior majoring in theatre, said he was empowered by Smith’s work.

“She has no fears when she is conveying her truth, and especially during our political climate, we need strong voices,” Vinchi said. “She is one of my invisible mentors. This was incredible.”