After starring in the early 20th century drama, The Piano Lesson, actress Danielle Deadwyler has found her next project, The Street. Also set in the early 20th century, The Streets reportedly follows the story of “Lutie Johnson, a young Black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s.” Deadwyler is expected to star as Johnson and executive produce the picture alongside writer-producer Gina Atwater, Michael Sherman, and Alix Madigan.
“Ann Petry’s The Street has quaked my understanding of motherhood, Black and American family life experiences on how to just get by, and the festering emotions that seed alongside the wilted optimism and dark hope of the American Dream,” Deadwyler said. “The Street is essential to American literature. It was evident upon its marvelous critically acclaimed debut, and now, with this steadfast and dynamic collaboration with Alix, Michael, Gina, myself, and the Petry estate, we hope to rumble the film landscape with an adaptation of her evergreen tale of the lengths to which one mother, one woman is stretched for self, family and the costs of survival.”
The Street is inspired by Ana Petry’s 1946 novel of the same name. It achieved previously unparalleled success, becoming the first novel written by a Black woman to sell one million copies. Most recently, it was reissued by Mariner Books Classics in 2020 with an intro written by New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones.
