The Arts of Racial Reckoning - Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture

The Arts of Racial Reckoning is executive produced by Dorinne Kondo.

In the aftermath of the 1992 LA Uprisings, Anna Deavere Smith crafted TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992, a play based on Smith’s interviews with over 200 Los Angeles residents.

30 years later, through the lens of TWILIGHT, we ask: how can the arts advance social justice? Can they help us understand structural racism, as more than individual prejudice? Can they provide models for working through conflict? Can they show us both possibilities and limits to our strategies for social change?

Episodes

Episode 3

Release Date: 09/09/2022

Today we are in conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, distinguished poet and President of the Mellon Foundation. Dr. Alexander was one of the dramaturgs on Twilight; at the time she was teaching at the University of Chicago. Dr. Alexander shows us the transformative power of the arts, humanities, and progressive philanthropy to transform the present and help to create more just, more equitable futures.

Episode 2

Release Date: 09/09/2022

Today we speak with two other dramaturgs who are prominent figures in their respective fields of theater, journalism, and literature: Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and Héctor Tobar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist. What was their experience with the making of TWILIGHT? What changes do they see since 1993, both in their fields and in terms of race relations in this country?

Episode 1

Release Date: 04/25/2022

Gender & Sexuality Studies
University of Southern California
Mark Taper Hall of Humanities, 422
3501 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California 90089-4352

gssconsortium@usc.edu

The Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture is generously funded by USC Dornsife and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.