Community and Theatre

 Fires in the Mirror is a part of her project On the Road: A Search for the American Character. It is a series of monologues excerpted from interviews

Fires in the Mirrorchronicles a civic disturbance in the New York neighbourhood of crown heights in August 1991

In that racially divided neighborhood, a car driven by a Jewish man veered onto a sidewalk and killed a 7-year-old Caribbean-American boy who was learning to ride a bicycle. The accident and the response of emergency medical personnel sparked protests during which a Jewish student visiting from Australia was stabbed on the street by a group of black youths. Days of rioting ensued, exposing to national scrutiny the depth of the racial divisions in Crown Heights. The rioting produced 190 injuries, 129 arrests, and an estimated one million dollars in property damage.^[1]

Smith interviewed leading politicians, writers, musicians, religious leaders, and intellectuals together with residents of Crown Heights and participants in the disturbances to craft the monologues of her play. Through the words of 26 different people, in 29 monologues, Smith explores how and why people signal their identities, how they perceive and respond to people different from themselves, and how barriers between groups can be breached. "My sense is that American character lives not in one place or the other," Smith writes in her introduction to the play, "but in the gaps between the places, and in our struggle to be together in our differences." The title of the play suggests a vision of art as a site of reflection where the passions and fires of a specific moment can be examined from a new angle, contemplated, and better understood.^[2]

Character description

Ntozake Shange: Discusses Identity in terms of the self fitting into the community as a whole and the feeling of being separate from others but still somewhat a part of the whole.

Anonymous Lubavitcher Woman: She explains her own religious affiliation as being Jewish and the perceptions she feels others have of her as being Jewish because of her beliefs. She is not bitter and instead, her words have a sense of humor attached to them.

George C. Wolfe: Wolfe talks about racial identity and argues that "blackness" is extremely different than "whiteness"

Aaron M. Bernstein: Bernstein intellectually theorizes how mirrors can distort images both scientifically and in literature

Anonymous Girl: She talks about how racial identity is extremely important in her school and the girls act, dress, and wear their hair according to the racial groups.

The Reverend Al Sharpton: He explains that he promised James Brown he would always wear his hair straightened and that it was not due to anything racial, just strictly based on friendship and promises.

Rivkah Siegal: Discusses the difficulty behind the custom of wearing wigs. She focuses on how she feels like she is not herself and that she is fake.

Angela Davis: Davis talks about the changes in history of Blacks and Whites and then continuing need to find ways to come together as people

Monique Matthews: Matthews discusses the perception of rap and the attitude toward women in the hip-hop culture. She explains the need for women in that culture to be more confident and not just accept that they need to fall into being okay with "just [being] considered a ho".

Leonard Jeffries: Describes his involvement in Roots, a television series about the slave trade.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin: Explains that blacks attack Jews because Jews are the only ones that listen to them and view them as important other human beings.

Minister Conrad Mohammaed: Theorizes and explains that blacks are God's chosen people and explains his views on the suffering of blacks at the hands of white people.

Robert Sherman: Explains that the English language is not useful for describing racial relations

Rabbi Joseph Spielman: Describes the riot events and believes that blacks lied about the events surrounding the murder of Cato in order to start anti-Semitic riots. Focuses on the malicious intent of the black kids that stabbed Rosenbaum

The Reverend Canon Doctor Heron Sam: Explains his opposing viewpoint on how the Jewish community was unconcerned with the killing of Cato

Anonymous Young Man #1: Explains his view on the differences of police contact with the Jewish and Black communities and how he thinks there is no justice for blacks and never any Jewish arrests.

Michael S. Miller: Argues that the black community is extremely anti-Semitic

Henry Rice:Describes his personal involvement in the events and the injustice placed upon him.

Norman Rosenbaum: Wants justice for his brother's murder and doesn't believe the police are doing all that they can. Correlates the murder of his brother as an injustice to the nation as a whole.

Anonymous Young Man #2: Explains that the black kid that was blamed for Rosenbaum's murder was an athlete and therefore wouldn't have killed anyone

Sonny Carson: Describes his personal contributions in the black community and how he is trying to teach blacks to act against the white power structure

Rabbi Shea Hecht: Does not believe integration is the solution to the problems of race relations

Richard Green: Believes that there are no role models for black youths and therefore there is rage among the black youth population

Roslyn Malamud: Blames the police and black leaders for letting the events and crisis get out of control

Reuven Ostrov: Describes how Jews got scared because there are "Jew-haters" everywhere

Carmel Cato: Closes the play by describing the trauma of seeing his son die and his resentment towards powerful Jews.^[2]