A story that remains disturbingly poignant sixty years after it was first published, James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is about abiding love in the face of injustice. Told from the perspective of its young heroine, this is the story of one family’s fight for justice in a society where institutional discrimination has the power to destroy lives, a theme that resonates today with audiences from all walks of life.

Literature to Life adapts Erika L. Sánchez’s YA novel as their newest title in their Signature Performance series. This title will be co-produced in partnership with Freedom Reads, the only organization in the nation transforming the experience of incarceration by opening libraries in prison housing facilities. Freedom Reads was founded by Reginald Dwayne Betts in 2020. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter takes place in modern day Chicago. The novel focuses on the idea of finding one’s own identity, and breaking free from societal, cultural, and familial expectations.

If Beale Street Could Talk performed by Channie Waites

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter performed by Elizabeth Raquel Ramirez

Performance will take place:

October 19, 2024