Notes From the Field

by Anna Deavere Smith

  Music

  Marcus Shelby composed and performed live music onstage for performances of this play by Ms. Smith. Any genre of music and number of musicians can be employed, as this would be a directorial choice. The relationship between the performer and the musician was conceived by the author and created between the author/performer and the musician in the tradition of jazz and jazz improvisation. Hence, the onstage presence of a musician is intentional in this, the play’s original form.

  Helper

  A nonspeaking helper is used in lieu of a stagehand. In the Second Stage Theater and American Repertory Theater productions, a twentysomething white male was the helper. As the helper is visible, and as race is both significant and movable in this and other works of Ms. Smith, selection of the nonspeaking helper’s presence should be an aesthetic and perhaps sociological consideration.

  * * *

  The actor performs barefoot unless otherwise noted.

  Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.

  —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, act III, scene ii

  [Slide]

  In Memory of:

  Anna Young Smith

  1924–2003

  and

  Dr. Maxine Greene

  1914–2014

  and

  Mr. Jonathan Demme

  1944–2017

  [Slide]

  The material in this play is composed of verbatim excerpts from interviews conducted by Anna Deavere Smith unless otherwise noted.

  These excerpts are drawn from a pool of 250 interviews conducted in four geographic areas of the United States and abroad.

  ACT ONE

  [Slide]

  PROLOGUE

  [Slide]

  SHERRILYN IFILL

  PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR-COUNSEL

  NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND

  FROM AN ONSTAGE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MS. IFILL AND MS. SMITH

  BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, JUNE 3, 2015

  “Big Bets”

  “Big Bets”

  (Ms. Ifill is a public figure. Really good with a crowd, could run for office. African American, late forties. Brightly colored jacket, simple slacks. Footage is available to study her speech patterns, some of which are indicated within the text via punctuation.

  In a theater in Baltimore, standing room only, a crowd that is really revved up, not that long after the Baltimore riots in 2015. Onstage being interviewed by the author. Handheld mic in her hand, easy chairs, table, flowers, water.)

  * * *

  I get asked this question all the time: what—how would you, what is the number one civil rights issue of the day. And…and I’m very uncomfortable with that question. Because…it is impossible to talk about the criminal justice system. Mass incarceration. Without talking about education. Because this country is always engaged in investments. Big investments, we make big bets. Nineteen-fifties, you know, this country massively invested in the creation of the suburbs, right? We created the interstate highway system. We provided, you know, tax credits to developers to build suburbs—that were racially exclusionary, by the way. But we made an investment! We decided—we—we made a massive investment in creating a middle class, really beginning in the 1930s, when the federal government started to insure mortgages, and only insured mortgages for—for white people, but we made an investment.

  Now today, we pretend we don’t make investments. ’Cause we talk about balancing the budget, and deficits. And we don’t have any money, and we don’t make—but we always make investments. And one of the huge investments that we made was in the criminal justice system. And that investment was made at the expense of other investments. We have taken dollars that we used to give, and that we could give, to invest in the issue of mental illness. It’s not that we’re not investing in mental illness. We are. We’re investing it in the prison system. It’s not that we’re, you know, talking—we—we decided we’re going to cut the budget and so we’re not investing in education. Yeah. Kinda. We’ve taken it to the prison system.

  So what we do is we take these investments that we could make, these big bets, and we place them somewhere. And that’s what we call policy. Which, you know, makes people’s eyes glaze over, but we should understand; policy is made up of the investments that we as a society decide to make.

  The moment that we’re in, by the way. Not only, you know, [here] in Baltimore. [I] spent time in St. Louis County, with Ferguson over the last year, and our lawyers were down North Charleston, in South Carolina. Where Walter Scott was killed, and the man we saw on the video. Being shot.

  There’s a lot of heaviness in this country in this moment. There’s a lot of pain. And, you know, I always say, “America is an interesting place.” It’s like one of my favorite movies, The Matrix. Where, you know, every once and a while, you eat the red pill? Whatever is the pill that makes you see the matrix. But you know, we can’t sustain it. Because it’s awful! You know, when you see all the strings, and you see everything that’s behind the scenes. We do have to enjoy ourselves. And live, and…make a way, you know, out of no way. But sometimes, you—you have to have these moments if we are going to move our society forward. It takes moments, kind of—almost epic moments. To move us, to be able to take the red pill. So there’s a way in which we are confronting this moment. And there is a privilege in that confrontation.

  [Slide]

  THE DEATH OF FREDDIE GRAY

  Actual newsclips about Freddie Gray’s arrest and death (April 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland) are shown.

  LESTER HOLT: Good evening. Baltimore police are the latest to fall under the harsh national spotlight over the death of a suspect. A short time ago, officials there released security video of the arrest of a twenty-five-year-old man whose death from a partially severed spine has raised questions about police actions. (Screams are heard.) Cell phone video shows twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray being taken into custody and placed in a police van a week ago. Some time between this moment and his arrival at the police precinct, Gray’s spine was nearly severed. But tonight, police still can’t say how Gray died yesterday.

  [Slide]

  KEVIN MOORE

  VIDEOGRAPHER OF THE BEATING OF FREDDIE GRAY

  DELI WORKER

  BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

  “Just a Glance”

  “Just a Glance”

  (A very tall [six-foot-three or so] charismatic, handsome black man in his late twenties, early thirties. Wears an oversize hoodie, with letters spelling COPWATCH. He carries a cell phone and a small camera, visible or nearly visible at all times. Think gun in a holster. West Baltimore accent.

  Walking past the very housing project where Freddie Gray was killed—graffiti and a beautiful mural commemorating Freddie where he actually died, showing the interviewer/audience, author around the neighborhood. He is talking directly to a videographer who is in front of his face somehow always. Live video of the actor as Kevin is projected behind the action. Cars slow down as they pass him and he acknowledges them with a nod.)

  * * *

  The screams [are] what woke me out my sleep. The screamin’. I’m like, well, “What’s all this screaming?” And then they came to pull me up, like, “Dude, they tasin’ him, they tasin’ him!” I’m like, “Wooh!” (High-pitched.) So I jumped up and threw some clothes on and went out to see what was going on, you know. And then I came out that way, and I’m like, “Holy shit!” You know what I’m saying?

  They had him all bent up and he was handcuffed and, like, facedown on his stomach
. But they had the—the heels of his feet like almost in his back? And he was handcuffed at the time. And they had the knee in the neck, and that pretty much explains the three cracked vertebrae and crushed lernix [pronounciation of larynx], 80 percent of his spinal cord being severed and stuff. And then when they picked him up, I had to zoom in to get a closer look on his face. You could see the pain in his face, you know what I’m saying? But then they pulled around on Mount Street and pulled him out again! To put leg shackles on him. You put leg shackles on a man that could barely walk to the paddy wagon? That doesn’t make sense to me. And I’ve never known a-a-a on-the-beat officer to carry leg shackles in—on their person or in the van, that’s something that you do when you’re going to another compound or when you’re being transported to the court or something like that. They don’t put leg shackles on you outside, they just don’t do it! You know, so you put leg shackles on a man that can’t walk. You know. Then you toss him in the back of the paddy wagon like a dead animal. You know what I’m saying? Then you don’t even put a seat belt on him. So basically, he’s handcuffed, shackled, sliding back and forth in a steel cage, basically. ’Cause that’s what—it’s not padded back there. I don’t know why everybody seems to say, “Oh, oh, uh, it’s a pad—it’s padded.” No, it’s not padded. It’s about—it’s—it’s about as padded as that v—the outside of that van.

  It’s ridiculous how bad they hurt that man. I mean, come on, a crushed lernix? Can you do that to yourself? Three cracked vertebrae? Can you do that to yourself? Can you sever 80 percent of your own spinal cord? You know what I’m saying? In the back of a paddy wagon, shackled and handcuffed, no less? I wish you could just see how they had him. So I’m like, “Man, this shit is just crazy, man. They just don’t care anymore!” Man, I just feel like we need to record it, you know’m saying? We need to get this word out that this thing is—is happening. This is the only weapon that we have that’s actually…the camera’s the only thing that we have that can actually protect us, that’s not illegal, you know what I’m saying? But in—in the same sense, these guys could feel threatened or, “Oh, well, I mistook this camera for a gun.” You know what I’m saying? So that’s what I’m sayin’! [Like I said,] I haven’t really filmed anything before, or been known for filmin’, you know what I’m saying?

  But that time I was like, man, “Somebody has to see this.” You know what I mean? “I have to film this.” When I touched back down around, I just basically called every news station that I could and just got the video out there! You know, mainstream, thirteen, forty-five, uh, eleven, New York Times, Russia Today. (Laughs.) I don’t even speak Russian but, you know, I did the interview.

  (Answering a question.) No, it was actually [I took it with] my phone! (Laughs.) And…I had some brothers from Ferguson, and they came out and supported me. Yeah, and they actually spent the night at my house! My brothers from Ferguson, they took me to Best Buy. And brought me four cameras. Basically arming me! It’s a movement. It’s not gonna stop here.

  (Answering a question.) Eye contact. This story [of Freddie Gray’s eye contact] was with the—the whole story since it be—since it happened. That’s how the officers, I guess, wrote the paperwork: That [Freddie] made eye contact. And he looked suspicious. Oh. “And that gave us probable cause to”…do whatever. We know the truth, y’know what I’m saying? Just a glance. The eye contact thing, that—it—it—it—it—sets off, it’s like a trigger. That’s all it takes here in Baltimore, is just a glance.

  (He sits down somewhere—a step, the curb, a box. He starts to cry.)

  Have you ever been to a place where (six-second pause) you don’t feel tired—you tired of being tired. You know’m saying? Where you fed up. And it’s nothing else left. And you can’t get any lower? (He listens to an answer.) Past that. You know? So…That’s where I’ve been. (He listens to a question.)

  Gotta keep climbing. You gotta keep fightin’. You gotta keep climbing. You gotta keep praying. You gotta keep doing all’v the things that you know can make you stronger because in the end (a deep inward breath), you just gonna need all the strength that you can muster to git yourself from that hole, it’s like a bunch of crabs trying to pull you back. You know what I’m saying? It’s like quicksand. And you fighting and you fighting you just sinking faster and faster. You know.

  And I hate it that Baltimore is going through such harsh times right now. The fact that my children might have to fight this fight, you know? I’m not gonna be here forever. You know’m saying? Then how do I train my children to deal with this, you know what I’m saying?

  (He stands up, listens to a question from the interviewer/audience.)

  The leaders? Right now, man, the leaders are looking pretty assholeish. Uh. Look. It’s—it’s just so much the leaders can do. You know what I’m sayin’? It’s only so mu—so much they can say. But at the end of the day the leaders gonna make up their minds. They’re gonna do what they wanna do, you know what’m saying, so…we have to make it better, not wait around for them to make it better. These people are tired and—and—and they want answers. And it seems like the only way they can get answers, to them, is if they cost the city money!

  Actual newsclips of Allen Bullock smashing a Baltimore city police car on April 25, 2015, are shown.

  [Slide]

  ALLEN BULLOCK

  PROTESTER

  BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

  “Runnin’ from ’Em”

  “Runnin’ from ’Em”

  (An eighteen-year-old black man. Lean. Wiry. Not that long ago he was a “shorty,” and you can still see it in his face and demeanor. In contrast to the sagging pants, etc., in the video, his clothing looks like it just came out of the laundry. Simple white T-shirt, khaki pants. New-looking boots or sneakers of the time period.

  Well-appointed lawyer’s office, downtown Baltimore, upper floor with a panoramic view of the city. Very large chair, gives impression of a throne. Hand gestures of the time, probably specific to Baltimore. He is looking out the window at the horizon; sometimes almost turns his back to the interviewer/audience. The feeling is that he couldn’t care less about the interviewer, almost like we are wasting his time.)

  * * *

  I don’t even look the police way, tell you the truth, that’s not even me, like…I don’t even pay the police no mind, like they look at me, I turn my head, I look ba— If I’m gonna look back at you, I’m not gonna mug you, I’ma just look away, you feel me? That’s all it is to—

  Because if you look at a police so hard or so straight—I don’t know, like see how he was, Freddie Gray, you feel me, in the way, like he was around this neighborhood, if the neighborhood police they don’t care, they—do—not care bout none o’ that you—if they know you in that neighborhood, they gonna do some t’— I don’t care what neighborhood you in, it could be a quiet neighborhood, anything, the police know, you from…bein’ bad, or not even bein’ bad, but bein’ around the area, anything, hanging with somebody, that that they know, that’s bad, they gonna harass you—and if they gon’ harass you— “Why you lookin’ at me like that?”— They will ask you “Why you looking at me like that,” like, in a smart way you feel me jump out the car, pulling their stick, all that, you feel me.

  I had a police ask me why’m I walkin’ in the street, why am I crossin’ in the street, like.

  “Whatchu mean why am I crossin’ in the street?” I’m saying something back he jumpin’ outta the car, so I get back on the curb. You feel me there’s no need for you to get outta the car, and you feel me and talk at me, you could see why am I walking across the street. They don’t say, ask you, me—“Sir, come here,” nunna that, you just…ask me why am I walkin’ across the street, y’feel me. It’s not uh late outside, it’s not nunnathat so what is you…I don’t know there’s just a lotta police out here thisss…bein’ police bein what they do.

  (He lis
tens to a question and for the first time faces the interviewer/audience.)

  Be smart, that’s what I would gotta say to you, be smart. Thass all ’ass ’sall is to it, if you know you…say if you—I don’t care whatchu do out there, that’s your hustle, if you got something on you, don’t even pay the police no mind, y’feel, don’t even draw no attention, but you not doing nut’in I still don’t expect for you to draw no attention to the police, like, the police, out here, don’t care, even if you don’t got nuttin’ on you! Why look at the police you ain’t got no— Why mug the police? You feel me? No reason at all, so I wouldn’t even pay the police no mind, I don’t pay the police out here no mind. They mug me all day, I don’t care about nunnathat they doin’ like—I see ’em, you feel me, like, I don’t say too much stuff the police an’ all that like for no reason at all, like…