Fires In The Mirror

“I then started thinking that if I listened carefully to people’s words, and particularly to their rhythms, that I could use language to learn about my own time. If I could find a way to really inhabit the words of those around me, like I had inhabited those of Queen Margaret, that I could learn about the spirit, the imagination, and the challenges of my own time, firsthand.” 

Smith discusses the importance of words and their rhythm in regard to the creation of this work. Although the play concerns identity and race, among other themes, the words themselves are an integral aspect of the performance. Smith speaks to inhabiting or embodying the words, as though the words spoken by her characters are an extension of themselves. In this way, the words cannot be separate from either race or identity; rather, the words act as an extension of race and identity. The words spoken in the dialogues extend beyond the personal, however; they expand to encompass social challenges. In this way, words represent something far greater than individual characters or even individual identities; rather, they are an extension of the history—and more importantly, of the society—itself.

“For three days, Black people fought police, attacked Lubavitcher headquarters, and torched businesses while Hasidic patrols responded with their own violence. The conflict reflected long-standing tensions within Crown Heights between Lubavitchers and Blacks, as well as the pain, oppression, and discrimination these groups have historically experienced outside their own communities”

The way that Smith talks about the situation perfectly encapsulates the conflict and the tensions at the center of the Crown Heights incidents. Semantically, she sets black people at odds with the Lubavitcher community; they do not mix, but rather are kept separated by their identities. There is a push-and-pull between the two, as Smith oscillates from explaining what the black community did from how the Lubavitcher community responded.