NOTES FROM THE FIELD: DOING TIME IN EDUCATION: The California Chapter

Much of Berkeley is turning out at Berkeley Repertory Theatre to witness and participate in this newest offering by the great Anna Deavere Smith who is known for making multi-faceted, multi-layered sense of America’s most distressing social problems. Her exploration here is of the causes and costs of the “School-to-prison-pipeline” that is as ugly a blemish on our nation’s image as it is a nearly fatal bruise on our collective heart. Act One is devastating and needs the activist/audience participation in finding solutions offered in Act Two.

Smith is the kind of artist who reminds us what artists can do. They can arouse understanding and compassion, and hopefully activity for positive change, in the world.