Fires in the Mirror

by Anna Deavere Smith

Derived from interviews with a wide range of people who experienced or observed New York's 1991 Crown Heights racial riots, Fires In The Mirror is as distinguished a work of commentary on black-white tensions as it is a work 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.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Nonfiction, School, Read For School, History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950) is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress. Smith is widely known for her roles as National Security Advisor Nancy McNally in The West Wing and as Hospital Administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie. She is a recipient of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2013), one of the richest prizes in the American arts with a remuneration of $300,000.

In 2009 Smith published her first book, Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics. In 2006 she released another, Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind.

As a dramatist Smith was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for Fires in the Mirror which won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show. She was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1994 for Twilight: one for Best Actress and another for Best Play. The play won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and a Theatre World Award.

Smith was one of the 1996 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the "genius grant." She also won a 2006 Fletcher Foundation Fellowship for her contribution to civil rights issues as well as a 2008 Matrix Award from the New York Women in Communications, Inc. In 2009 she won a Fellow Award in Theater Arts from United States Artists.

She has received honorary degrees from Spelman College, Arcadia University, Bates College, Smith College, Skidmore College, Macalester College, Occidental College, Pratt Institute, Holy Cross College,[disambiguation needed] Haverford College, Wesleyan University, School of Visual Arts, Northwestern University, Colgate University, California State University Sacramento, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wheelock College, Williams College, and the Cooper Union.

The United Solo Theatre Festival board awarded her with uAward for outstanding solo performer during the inaugural edition in November 2010.

In 2013, she received the 2012 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Anna Deavere Smith, so I was excited to read this book. Smith uses oral histories of the people of Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York who were involved or witnesses to the racial riots of 1991. Tensions were already strained in Crown Heights between the Lubavitcher Jewish community and the Black community.

The event that sparked the riots was an accident caused by a drunk Jewish man driving the Lubavitcher Hasidic Rebbe swerved off the road and hit and killed a young Black boy named Gavin Cato. Jewish bystanders called immediately for a private Jewish ambulance that arrived promptly and cared for the driver and the Rebbe, who sustained little to no damage, ignoring the boy who lay dead. An ambulance for the young Cato arrived later. In retaliation, a group of Black men fatally stabbed a young Hasidic scholar, Yankel Rosenbaum, visiting from Australia. Riots broke out for 3 days.

Smith interviewed twenty-six locals, both Jewish and Black, and utilized their oral histories to write a one-woman play, using language as a vehicle to understand the viewpoint of those affected by the riots and to "learn about her own time." (See the Introduction for the quote) This book is the script of her one-woman show. For each monologue, Smith details who she interviewed, the setting in which the interview took place, how they dressed, and any particular mannerisms. She later performed the show and it has been televised. You can find the show on YouTube.

Smith is a master at the use of authentic voices in acting. As I read the book, I considered how Smith, as an interviewer, was both an insider (to her Black narrators) and an outsider (to her Jewish narrators) and wondered how this affected the stories each person had to tell. They all seemed very open and honest and found it a provocative way to record this piece of history, utilizing the voice of those involved, as well as inserting their raw emotions. This is a unique way of recording and analyzing history.

It is worth reading the script and then watching the play on YouTube. Plus Anna Deveare Smith is a wonderful actor.

[Aaron Piccirillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“you can go into... some really so-called undeveloped nation, and i don’t care how low that person’s humanity is whether they never had running water, if they’d never seen a television or anything. they are in better condition than the black man and woman in america today.”

actual rating: 4.5/5

ms anna deavere smith at it again! really enjoyed the play and was happy i finally got around to reading it after having it for years. even though i didn’t know a lot about the crown heights’ riots it was still really interesting to learn about it and how this event impacted so many people and also hearing stories from people who were actually there was fascinating. and my girls ntozake shange and angela davis made appearances!!! honestly verbatim theatre really does hit different and anna is sooo talented like please support her work!

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great play by Smith. This delves into the death of Gavin Cato, a young African-American boy in Crown Heights who was killed when a car driven by a Jewish man hit him. There was perceived delayed response to Cato and his injured sister. This resulted in protests and riots, one riot resulting in the death of a Jewish student. Smith presents a variety of points of view.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was definitely meant to be staged as opposed to read, it's still worth discovering as a reader since subtleties of character are explored (and in some cases explained or defended, in relation to the writer's choices as based on the real people who are characters are based off of). It does start off slowly. Since the beginning of the book examine the context of the play, and the deaths that set off the Crown Hill riots in the early 90s, the reader is invested in those events. The beginning of the play itself, though, after setting out the deaths, takes a step back to discover Jewish and African American life in the area, before moving forward to what the reader was expecting. The choice makes sense, in terms of power and in terms of the writer's goal, but it does make for something of a slow-down, and I have to admit that I also felt the last pieces of the play were short in comparison. That said, I have a feeling the introductions have something to do with that--they built up Smith's project and the play in such a way that I was expecting a lot, whereas I might have been more impressed with the play itself had I not read those introductions. They are worthwhile, and there's nothing to really be given away a might happen with another work's introduction, but it's worth noting for readers who are heading into this. Of course, whether or not the play would be so powerful without some of that extra understanding... well, it's a catch-22, I suppose.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to have found my way to the play, and I'd certainly recommend it to readers who are interested in the events/relations at the heart of it, or interested in documentary-type and interview-based performance pieces.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2/5 stars

I am still processing but I liked this.
I feel like I would not recommend it to many because I think that the structure could frustrate many. It is a play, so the structure makes sense, but it is not a normal play so I feel like a lot of people would just be annoyed by what it is.
And although I enjoyed it, I don't know if it would be very interesting to many. I see it as something mostly useful for people studying acting or narrative or maybe interviewing/oral history.

Actually, originally I was supposed to read it for an oral history class and I just got so busy that I skipped the assignment. So, coming to it now I still kind of approached it as analyzing it's use of oral history in art.

To be honest, I think the introduction was my favorite part of the book. Reading about Smith's process and approach was very interesting and I really liked how she was playing with this idea of identity. "In America identity is always being negotiated" - you really feel that in each of the vignettes, the negotiation. And I think what is most interesting about this play, is how the concepts of memory and identity play together. How the negotiation of our memory, out history, factors into the negotiation of our identity and the loop it creates.

Reading through the play I really tried to focus on what each character, person, wanted to tell you or was telling you about their identity and/or the identity of their community, and how their identity and their community's identity were different or intertwined.
It actually reminded me a lot of another book I read recently, Delta Wedding, because I felt like so much of that was the characters trying to tell you who they were, who their family was, what they were to and in their family and vice versa.

In this though there are so many layers - these are oral histories being cut up and analyzed and transcribed and performed. Ultimately, you cannot ignore the narrative that Smith sees and is ultimately crafting out of all of this.
I do think she very purposefully tried to rid herself of narrative, she does not say what her process was for choosing the excerpts she uses from the interviews, but I really think she tried to focus on the rhythm and the verse and let that be the lead ("everyone, in a given amount of time, will say something that is like poetry"). However, narrative is instinctual to humans, innate, so there is no way around it I do not believe.

But the narrative that does come out of it is a succinct one - one that really tries to show how similar and different members of a community can be. And how a lot of the time, what we think is different about us, is actually what we might share the most. Anyway, I know I am sounding REAL "kumbaya" lib right now. The story she ultimately tells does not really make it seem simple at all though - like all we have to do is listen and we'll all get along. It highlights the complications and emphasizes why these similarities and differences almost don't even matter even though they are so so important.

Trying to extract anything out of this about the history of the event I think would be not very productive. Especially, which this is something I kept having to remind myself of, because human memory is so imperfect and imprecise and mailable, that these really have very little to tell you about the event itself beyond how it made its community members, and others touched by it, feel. That's something oral historians feel squirmy about because you cannot find something qualitative in feelings. They are too mushy and too hard to summarize, nail down.
But actors thrive in that mushiness which is why I am sure this was a worth while play to watch and I am sad I was not yet born, let alone old enough to appreciate it when Smith preformed it.
It really is a fascinating idea, the thought that you can create an emotional history out of interviews - can you? Does this hold truth? Maybe, maybe not. I imagine the truth is different to each of the people involved and that is I think what is at the core of memory - its what makes it so difficult to reconcile between us all, the "negotiation."

Anyway, this book left me with a lot of lingering thoughts and questions about both the use of oral history and how all of this relates to our issues today.
I obviously could not read this without thinking about the genocide in Gaza and the perception of Jews, especially Hasidic Jews, as "zionism" has increasingly become a part of our daily lexicon.

This play left me with few if any answers about anything, but it was still an interesting exploration into something different that Smith tried to do here.

[Cheryl Ma · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read in a while. Super super interesting format and content. Thanks sachi for the rec.

It’s a theater piece where actors try to verbatim repeat and reenact interviews conducted by Anna Devere Smith following the Black and Hasidic communities violence and riots in Crown Heights in 1991. Perspectives on what happened are quite different around the trigger event (a Libavicher car entourage that killed a young black Gavin Cato) and the subsequent riots/murders.

It’s about anti blackness and anti semitism but also it’s really about crown heights and how these two communities do and don’t interact. It is really really cool to understand now that I’ve lived in crown heights for a year (in neither of these communities but instead as a part of a third cultural group of young gentrifiers…) and the writing format was new and powerful.

I heard this is required reading for all public school students in New York and I feel like it should be required reading for all who live in crown heights too!

[Mike Reiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smith’s first major work, and short listed for a Pulitzer, you can tell it’s a work of an artist finding the right form of the idea she’s gravitated towards - the docu-drama, voice and embodiment as identity shaping elements for performer and performed. Not quite as focused, expansive or affecting as Twilight, but still excellent.

[WaiThain · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not find this book interesting because the monologues are too one-sided. Through the monologues, most interviewees say that they try to understand people of different races but it is hard because of cultural differences. At the same time, people choose to remain the way they are and not to share themselves with others. For instance, in “Static”, the Lubavitcher woman did not explain why she could not turn off the radio, and this creates misunderstanding for the black boy who helped her. In addition, it seems like that most of them fail to notice that there are other problems beside the one between Jews and Blacks. Since many are concerned with this issue, it creates discrimination by excluding people of other colors. For example, in “Near Enough to Reach,” Ms. Pogrebin just left others out by saying, “Only Jews listen, only Jews take Blacks seriously…”
In regarding about the incident that happened in Crown Heights, there is no monologue that clearly describes what happened because the interviewees always say something that makes the other side looks bad. No one wants to take responsibility for what happened, so the Jews and the Blacks keep on blaming each other. It is like a soccer game with the ball being kicked around until it gets into the goal. However, the fans, which represent either the Jewish or Black community, will always support the team that they have come for.
Anna Deavere Smith tries to create diversity, but the interviews did not take into account of how other races feel toward the issues being discussed in the monologues. There are others who have been through the same sufferings as Blacks and Jews did.

[Benewaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna Deaveree Smith's goal for this book was to get the inside story from both the black community and the Jewish community. This book was inspired by the 1992 riot in Brooklyn regarding a black boy who died in a car accident. The community describes the driver of the car ridiculous and also he was speeding. This car accident sparked a riot between the Hasidic Jewish community and the Black community because both communities felt betrayed and they also associated this with racism and their pass sufferings.
The author of the book did research and she also interviewed members of each community to get their perspective on this incidence and also why are they participating. In most interviews, many of the Blacks were very angry because they claimed the driver of that car was speeding in a residential area and he knew he could have cause problems. Their biggest worry was why didn't he get prosecuted.
According to the Jewish community this was just an accident and many people are involving other incidence from the pass just to create a bigger problem and get attention. Overall, both communities did not have respect for their cultures therefore, they said whatever they want to get on each others' bad side.

[Qi Yin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith uses monologues to retell the Crown Height Riots. Anna Deavere Smith interviews various people who are directly and indirectly involved in the Crown Height neighborhood. Smith tries to reveal both Black and Jewish view of the event and the truth of the Crown Height incident that happened where a little Black boy was killed by a car; and a Jewish man was stabbed and died.
Anna Deavere Smith has a lot of opposing side of the event where a Black person has a totally different perspective of the death of the even than a Jewish person. She also expresses that the cause of the whole incident is because both Black and Jewish people are not trying to understand each other even thought they are living in the same community.
I like how Anna Deavere Smith portrays the Crown Height incident because as the author she did not take position on what she personally think is true but uses monologues of different people who are involved to portray the whole incident with as little bias as possible; even though there is bias within what everybody has to say. However, it is the readers' decision of what to believe.

[Rinchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book because it was talking about an actual event that had occurred in the past, in this city. What i liked most about it was that since it was a monologue, it had the opinions of so many people that you really start to understand the issue and how it affected everyone.
one quote that i thought was very strong from the book was "Those in the margins are always trying to get to the center and those at the center, frequently in the name of tradition are trying to keep the margins at a distance".
This quote is describing how different races are competing to be the "best". one is always pushing the other one away, in the Case of "Fires in the Mirror" the Jews and the African-American. It's almost like these two groups are impossible to get along with. In the time that i was reading this it got me into a lot of thinking because the themes that come up in this book really make you wonder about the society in which we live in and the promblems that we face that we don't necessary always bring up.

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

You should watch Smith’s one-woman play, runner-up for a Pulitzer for Drama, on YouTube. Smith interviewed Caribbean and Hasidic residents of Crown Heights, Brooklyn shortly after the tragedy of August 1991. Every speaker is an unreliable narrator, filled with prejudice, rage and conspiracy theory. A car accident involving the Chabad Rebbe’s entourage kills a young black boy, Gavin Cato. The days of riots that ensue, enflamed by ethnic tensions and rabble-rousers, results in the stabbing death of an orthodox Jewish scholar. Smith interviewed the principle characters, bystanders, commentators and community leaders, recording their words and manners then acting them out on stage. Smith’s live performance is a miracle of theater; the filmed version less so, but still stirring. The transcripts on the page are at best a back-up to be reviewed after screening. This edition has an excellent preface by a younger Cornel West and an intro by Smith: “To develop a voice, one must develop an ear.”

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand that the play, in which one actress takes on the roles of a dozen or so people - Black, Jewish, and otherwise - affected by the Crown Heights riots, is an impressive piece of theatrical art. Just reading the monologues here, however, didn't do much for me. For one, the formatting is bizarre, with frequent line breaks like poetry that really interrupted my sense of a real character speaking. For another, although I really do recognize the author's attempt to create a "Rashamon" style scenario of he saids/she saids, of he perceiveds/she perceiveds, the book still seems to come down far harder on the Jews. It's understandable, given the author's own identification with the African Americans in Crown Heights, but a book shouldn't claim to be taking all sides when it takes some sides more than others. Still, the perspectives voiced by the characters within are BELIEVABLE, if not even-handed.

[dya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea that this happened until I read the book. The collection presents many perspectives, which are familiar to me as being an African American with family members who hold similar thoughts about non-black people. But it was nice to see the Jewish perspective the events at hand. I could understand both sides frustration but what I think the essential issue of the two was is that they both have a history of being shunned by those outside of their groups. Yet, Jewish people were (are) more easily able to assimilate in American society because of their skin color. Black people will always be considered, more directly and openly, an outside, ostracized group, because of the melanin of their skin.

I am not ranking which group "has it the hardest" because essentially that does not matter. But I feel like beyond the car accident, that's what caused the racial tensions in Crown Heights. I loved it.

[Dylan Suher · Rating 3 out of 5]

With plays like this, it's almost a waste of time to print them: the script is only the barest of hints at what the play might actually be as performed. I would very much like to see it performed. Fascinating exploration into the roles we play in American society. The Crown Heights Riots are almost beside the point (for better or worse), used here like a particle accelerator: as an uncomfortable high-velocity confrontation that, as the characters struggle to come to terms with what they mean, you can either glimpse them through the cracks in their facades shifting under their identities, or clinging desperately to the claims they have.

[George Majchrzak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating dramatization of real events, and real tensions from 1991 Crown Heights. This is a play, specifically a one-person show, but it appears on the page as a poem, and while I like that stylistic approach, for some reason I found it distracting. I kept reading it more as a poem and wanted to see it performed. For that reason, and that reason alone, I felt its impact was dulled. Still, the issues of slavery, the Holocaust, racism, and race relations are all at play here, and that gives it plenty of gravitas. If anything, I want more; I want to see this performed, to see it in its full potency.

[Lashai · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another book that my friend recommended. Overall i think the book was was okay. When the book was describing the setting, it sort of reminded me of New York City with the imagery and the main races that live in the neighborhood. As for the conflict in the story, i think it interesting. The conflict between the blacks and the jews is very relatable, because in this world, there is a lot of racial tension between races. From this book i leaned that even the smallest things that happen can seem like the motivation was racial hatred.

[Efrain · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated reading this book too, in fact, this one was worst than Twilight. It was the first play that I've read consisting of ONLY monologues which i very much appreciate, but by page forty the I had realized, along with the whole class, that I had just read 40 pages of different people saying the same thing about the same subject over and over again. It was dreadful and tedious to go on. I would have loved to have seen the rest of the play performed by Smith because she did a good job performing in one scene, but unfortunately that was not the case.

[Rani · Rating 4 out of 5]

What she said in the preface resonated such a profound truth for me about the rhythm of a character's speech, about letting the character enter you instead of forcing yourself onto a character. I lived very near this neighborhood recently after the incidents described, I recognized the ethnic tensions. I was very moved by the collection of all the perspectives. I felt for each individual that was represented. Brilliant and profound artistry about challenging subject matter that challenges the reader and viewer.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went to work at NY City Hall not long after the Crown Heights Riots and I had seen Anna Deavere Smith perform on PBS - but that was years ago.

So I read this knowing many of the players at least in passing. This invoked all the pain and fear that I'd seen, albeit after the fact, all the anger, the thoughtful, caring people who wanted to learn from it, the angry people who wanted to justify it, and most of all the confused, sad people who had shared this neighborhood until one horrible day.

I thought it would be dated. (I wished it would be dated) but its not, not at all.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

it feels like something's missing from this. it didn't seem to have the oomph of 'twilight: los angeles'. perhaps because these pieces dealt much more with day-to-day living and seemingly arbitrary anecdotes than everything underlying the riots. unlike 'twilight', where i felt i gained so much more insight into what i already knew or didn't know about the LA riots, 'fires in the mirror' felt overshadowed by what i've already read by Patricia Williams on the subject.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Er, okay, so I didn't read all of it exactly. And I feel VERY bad about that.

But we watched a lot if it in English Class, and I did read a LOT of it, it's just... I don't know. I adore Anna Deveare Smith (Wingnut since '04 - when I was a small child - woot, woot!) but eh... it gets a bit repetitive, you know?

I do think it's a fascinating medium though, and the Crown Heights Riots are definitely something more people should know about.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't think I would have read this if it were not for a class requirement. However the different perspectives between the Hassidic Jews and Black population of Crown Heights were interesting. I wish she would have included some type of factual information to contrast the "truth" of the matter with the different opinions and perspectives of the accident. But the fact that Anna Deavere Smith kept the interviews as raw as possible was a nice touch.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for my Intro to World Lit class, and I am so glad I did. It was such a good book. I didn't even know this actually happened until reading about it, then later researching it. I liked how before the monologues/interview passages started, they gave brief background on what happened and then listed events in chronological order that happened after the start of it. I liked how we were able to view it from both perspectives. It is a very thought-provoking read.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

“ain't no justice,
ain't never been no justice,
ain't never gonna be no justice.”

a play made up of powerful monologues that i could read like poetry for much of it. an ominous and informative firsthand look at the ways this conflict affected the different communities within one brooklyn neighborhood

[Rebecca]

i would also recommend this book to those in the theater but they've probably already read it. This was interesting but not mind-blowing. I like reading plays because they go fast, and since this one is sort of about Jewish identity I can sort of pretend I'm doing research. Sort of.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize these are the characters from Anna Deavere Smith's show about the awful riots/killings in Crown Heights, 1991. I know I'd be sucked in seeing it live, but reading it was hard to get into. I'm really glad I learned of this incident, I had no idea this happened.

[Kevin2]

i thought this book was ok because it has a lot of information and "interviews" about segregation. i thought this book was mostly about the people venting out and speaking about their opinions about this subject and not enough facts.

[Juliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a theatre class at The University of Minnesota. It was powerful and exciting-a female playwright/actress/activist and her work as an entire unit (script analysis, scene study, dramaturgy, contemporary issues, comparative literature and cultural studies).

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful, wonderful work. I loved the order the sections were put in- especially when two conflicting accounts were put together. I have the pleasure of watching this in a theatre class tomorrow, and I'm quite excited.