Fires in the Mirror

              “Fires in the Mirror is one sure sign, an oasis of hope, that human art can triumph in the face of a frightening urban crisis- a crisis symptomatic of a national tragedy.  It provides us with a glimpse of what we need and what we must do if we are ever to overcome the xenophobic cancer that threatens to devour the soul of the precious yet precarious democratic experiment called America.” (Smith xxiv)  I really enjoyed reading Anna Deavere Smith’s Introduction to: Fires in the Mirror, which is a part of a series of theatre performances called On the Road: A Search for American Character.  Deavere interviews people and use their words in live performances.  Her research is from collecting individual interviews from her students, community residents, celebrities, and from her commissioned work helping institutions going through identity shifts concerning gender and ethnicity.  I found it very interesting because her focus is on language in creating believable characters for theatrical performances.  Her goals are language as a photograph, transmitting oral history & cultural memory, building bridges through intervention listening, and overcoming systematic barriers.  Anna Deavere Smith explains the community based arts process, negotiating identity, and what threatens a democratic theatre in America.  It is exactly what we will are doing at Catholic Charities.        

              The reality is that invisible barriers exist from tradition: perception of a place, a nationality, social mores, and institutionalized bigotry.  Some barriers you can see with laws against homosexual marriages and others you may only feel through tension.  At times it is unspoken but very much present.  In the first community meeting, Anna Deavere clears the air about fair treatment and lays the groundwork for confrontation, examination, and building a bond of trust. “Our inhibitions may limit our connections to our neighbors, city at large, and in every area our lives; we are gradually replacing inhibitions with proactive empathy in crossing  nationality barriers for new found relationships.  It all starts from creating an atmosphere of authorship for community residents, active listening, starting the reenactments, and acknowledging common threads between different cultures.  The end result is something very beautiful and possibly beginning a catharsis in that community.  Deavere’s grandfather  said, “If you say a word often enough it becomes your own.” (Smith xxiii)

              “Identity, in fact, lives in the unique way that a person departs from the English language in a perfect state to create something that is individual.  Ntozake Shange’s selection in Fires in the Mirror speaks to this: “Identity is .. it’s a way of knowing that no matter where I put myself, that I am not necessarily what’s around me. I am a part of my surroundings and I become separate from them, and it’s being able to make those differentiations clearly that gives us an identity.” (Smith xxx)  As Americans, our identity is always negotiated and changing like the perception of a community.  What extent do people who come to America have to give up something about their own identity to conform to an idea of what an American is?  Our words identify who we are and where we belong.  Sometimes we are not the status quo but instead we are the “other.”  Deavere said, “The frame of reference for the other would become the other.  Learning about the other by being the other requires the use of all aspects of memory, the memory of the body, mind, and heart, as well as the words.  I had not controlled the words.  I had presented myself as an empty vessel, a repeater, and they had shown their power.  I was soon to learn about the power of rhythm and imagery to evoke the spirit of a character, of a play, of a time.”  (Smith xxvii)  Anna Deavere Smith’s post-play discussions are the ideas behind On the Road to bring people together into the same room (theater) who would normally not be together, and attract people to the theater who don’t usually come to the theatre.”   (Smith xxxviii) 

Our Louisville Intercultural Engaged Theatre Project works very much the same way.  We have visited Catholic Charities Refugee Program.  I met people from Africa, Thailand, Iraq, Cuba, and much more.  I understand that outside Catholic Charities possibly we may have never met.  It’s been a joy working and getting to know them.  I interviewed gentlemen from Cuba, Somalia, and Kenya.  The stories are very rich about tribal weddings, medical careers, three day celebrations, civil wars, and culture exchange.  We weave the stories together for a live performance.  It is so important to me for genuine three dimension characters on stage- real people.  I want the performance to involve all the stories; so we look the common thread between all the cultures.  The end result will be truthful, comical, and dramatic.  We want people to see themselves on stage and possibly recognize something overlooked.  I'm surprised about the heroic journey that brought each of them to the United States.  You can checkout: Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirrors article and book.