TIME

Suzan-Lori Parks

The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright on adapting classics, the black avant-garde and how much of the world is a stage

You’ve adapted several American masterworks, most recently Native Son, which is out April 6 on HBO. How intimidating is that process? I find it joyful. With Their Eyes Were Watching God, I basically got to walk in the footsteps of the great one. I felt like I got to hold the hand of Zora Neale Hurston and say, “Sister, what would you like?” Native Son

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from TIME

TIME3 min readGender Studies
Kathleen Hanna
You’ve been in the public eye since you founded your groundbreaking feminist punk band Bikini Kill, over 30 years ago. When did you decide to write your memoir? I started talking about it when I was maybe 40. Then I got sick with Lyme disease, and th
TIME6 min read
Titans
Last May, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory about the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation—a departure from the type of standard medical conditions his predecessors prioritized. While traveling the country, Murthy had
TIME2 min readPolitical Ideologies
The Party Of Mandela Fails To Deliver
The African National Congress has led South Africa’s government since the end of apartheid in 1994. But as voters go to the polls on May 29, there’s good reason to wonder whether the ANC might be in real trouble. During the ANC’s most recent term in

Related