This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.
The movie "Moonlight," which won the Oscar for best picture in 2017, was adapted from a script by my guest, Tarell Alvin McCraney. He and the film's director, Barry Jenkins, won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. McCraney is now the creator of the series "David Makes Man," where he's also an executive producer and writer. It's in its second season on OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network. Like "Moonlight," it begins with a boy growing up in the projects in a Miami neighborhood who's neglected by his crack-addicted mother, which echoes McCraney's childhood. But in "David Makes Man," the mother is able to get clean and stay sober. David is very smart and is one of two Black students in the gifted and talented class at his magnet school. He manages to get into prep school, where he's again one of the few Black students, and he's surrounded by students from families with money. The code-switching required, going back-and-forth from the projects to school, is confusing and complicated.