Award-winning actress and author Anna Deveare Smith will discuss problems facing modern society on Oct. 21 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts.

Main stage and livestream is free but advanced registration is needed to attend. In person tickets will be held inside of socially distanced pods. Only one ticket can be acquired for each livestream.

Smith is known for being an actress in comedy series such as “West Wing,” “Nurse Jackie” and “Black-ish.” She has also done a Ted Talk on her work. Her website describes her as a person who looks at multiple points of view and joins it with “the journalist techniques of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance.”

Some of her topics specifically are the vulnerability of young people today, inequality, the criminal justice system and contemporary activism.

The event is sponsored by the Blauvelt Speakers’ Series. The Blauvelt Speakers Series is partially funded by the late Bradford Thomas and Eleanor G. Blauvelt and the Wintrode Family Foundation. The tickets are on sale on the Grunin Center website www.grunincenter.org/events/photo