“Esteemed TV producer Norman Lear realizes the power of arts and entertainment” by Ebony Shamberger
After 92 years, eight months and one day, Norman Lear finally realized the power of arts and entertainment. On this day, he took stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC to address hundreds of attendees of the 2015 Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy, presented by the Americans for the Arts.
Nancy Hanks is the former president of Americans for the Arts and chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. She served 15 years bringing arts to prominent national consciousness.
“When [rap artist] Common was introduced, I thought it was louder,” said the Peabody and four-time Emmy winner after applause rattled the Concert Hall.
Common was an appropriate introductory speaker for Lear. Not only did he grow up watching the shows Lear produced, but he has also made numerous lyrical references to these same shows, including The Jefferson’s, Good Times, Sanford and Son, Maude, One Day at a Time, and Mary Hartman. These shows gave African Americans a platform in what we call the Hollywood discourse.
Since the 1950s, the beginning of his writing career, Lear has created three-dimensional characters who profoundly impacted the lives of TV viewers. This earned him entry into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984.
Despite his background in production, Lear made reference to social and political issues throughout his speech. These references included “military industrial prisons,” the wealth income gap and over consumption in America. He considered these issues to be forces that divide the nation and the world. However, he reminded guests of the ability of the media to bring people together. “The arts is what keeps us together,” said Lear. “Those things that cause us to see and hear as one.” He continued, “Art is the umbilical of our connectedness.”
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