For our inaugural event for the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, we welcome playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Innovators for the Next New Wave.She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog and is a MacArthur Award recipient.
Her talks are truly compelling narrative events, part performance, part storytelling, and always high energy, with an inspired sense of humor. On November 28th, she will speak about her plays as they relate to the topics of race and justice, followed by a dramatization by two actors of scenes from her recent work. Audience discussion after the dramatizations will explore questions of ethics, social justice, and race in health care delivery and research.
Suzan-Lori Parks currently teaches at New York University and serves at the Public Theatre as their Master Writer Chair. She is at work on her second novel and is writing an adaptation of the film The Harder They Come for a live stage musical. Ms. Parks has just finished a new film adaptation of Native Son by Richard Wright, and is working on a film script about legendary singer Billie Holiday.
