Checking out the morning news, I came across the story "Playwright Who Inspired 'Moonlight' Comes Home To South Florida High School" at WSVN.com/News. I read with great interest how Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up in Liberty City and attended the New World School of the Arts, the SoFla school mentioned in the article. I also read that his play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue had been made into the award-winning film Moonlight by another talented man from Liberty City, director Barry Jenkins. The film was shot in Miami, as you can see from the official trailer on YouTube.

What I didn't read there I found by a little research. McCraney also taught until just recently at the University of Miami. He is now the department chairman of Drama at Yale University, where he won his graduate degree.He also had a Writing Residency at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, and has won Whiting Awards and GLAAD Media Award For Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway and Off-Broadway, as mentioned in his interview for The Guardian .In 2013, he was awarded a MacArthur "genius" Grant.His books include The Brother/Sister Plays , Choir Boy and American Trade.

In his numerous interviews, for The Guardian, NBC News, the New York Times, the LA Times and others, (look at his Google links here), he talks about growing up poor and black and gay with an addictive parent in Liberty City. He also talks about the responsibility of art to show us the world as it really is and to help us learn to see, to change and to grow.

I am amazed, the more I learn about this talented young man. All the best to Tarell Alvin McCraney.