I'm Jonathan K. Parton, welcome to K-PART.

Arnie Duncan was the ninth Secretary of Education and creator of Chicago CRED.

Anna DeVier Smith is the renowned playwright and actress whose 1992 play Fires in Mirror

made her a pioneer of verbatim theater.

Today, they are raising awareness about gun violence in very different ways, one on the

stage and the other on the streets of Chicago.

But they come together in an opera for Lyric Opera of Chicago called The Walkers.

Smith is the LeBretest in Duncan and the work of Chicago CRED are at the center of the story.

In this conversation, first recorded for Washington Post Live on March 27th, Smith and Duncan

talk about the opera and while shining a spotlight in this way on the people scarred by

gun violence, it's so important.

And as we know, so many children and so many young people of color, black folks just

get killed and they just just disappear into the ether.

So Anna, I'll start with you.

The walkers, as we know, is part of a trio of operas at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Briefly, tell me about the proximity program and how the walkers fits into that overall

program.

Well, Renee Fleming put together an evening of new operas along with the artistic

director, Anthony Freud and Renee had seen my play Notes from the Field, which is about

the School of Prison Pipeline and suggested that I write a libretto about gun violence

in Chicago.

I've never written a libretto before and she introduced me to Yuval Sharon who's considered

...