This event is part of The American Inspiration series by American Ancestors NEHGS, and is hosted in partnership with Boston Public Library, and GBH Forum Network and takes place on  Zoom. Preregistration at the link below is required. Signed bookplates from the author are available!

An inspired exploration of home, memory, and belonging from a Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright.

In this remarkable memoir, Quiara Alegría Hudes tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse. She was awed by her aunts and uncles and cousins, but haunted by the secrets of the family and the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio—the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish. Hudes has since found her language, and in this powerful, heralded work, “her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories,” said Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton. Hudes will be joined by journalist Maria Hinojosa, whose work has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad.

Quiara Alegría Hudes is a writer, wife, mother of two, barrio feminist, and native of West Philly, USA. Hailed for their exuberance, intellectual rigor, and rich imagination, her plays and musicals have been performed around the world. They include the Broadway hit In the Heights and the Pulitzer Prize–winning drama Water by the Spoonful. She founded the online gallery Emancipated Stories.

Maria Hinojosa is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and author of Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. She is also anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by PRX and co-host of Futuro Media’s award-winning political podcast In The Thick.

With special guest Q+A panelist Boston educator and actress Melinda Lopez, playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre Company (Boston).