Showing results by author "Ann Petry"

As much a historical document as it is a novel, this 1946 winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award is the poignant and unblinkingly honest story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to live and raise her son by herself amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The Street was Ann Petry’s first novel, a beloved best seller with more than a million copies in print. Its haunting tale still resonates today.

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad was praised by the New Yorker as “an evocative portrait,” and by the Chicago Tribune as “superb.” It is a gripping and accessible portrait of the heroic woman who guided more than 300 slaves to freedom and who is expected to be the face of the new $20 bill. Harriet Tubman was born a slave and dreamed of being free. She was willing to risk everything - including her own life - to see that dream come true. After her daring escape, Harriet became a conductor on the secret Underground Railroad.

Sapphire ( Push), Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts ( Harlem Is Nowhere), and actress Sonia Manzano ( The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano) discuss the gritty, emotional 1946 classic set in Harlem. Actress Roslyn Ruff ( The Piano Lesson; The Help) will read an excerpt.