A Moonlight Writer Revisits Adolescence

IT’S A STORY POP CULTURE KEEPS RETELLING: A SMART, kindhearted kid from a poor neighborhood sees his potentially bright future threatened by gangs.

- Judy Berman

Movies like Boyz n the Hood set the prototype in the 1990s. The 21st century has brought variations on this theme to television, in shows as different as HBO’s classic The Wire and the Netflix teen comedy On My Block.

The title character of David Makes Man, which premieres Aug. 14 on OWN, starts out in the same perilous situation. A 14-year-old growing up in the South Florida projects, David (Akili McDowell) is an anomaly at his magnet middle school. Though he’s far from the sole black student, he does seem to be the only kid whose family sometimes has to choose between electricity and phone service. When he’s not at school, he plays surrogate dad to an intractable little brother J.G. (Cayden Williams) while his mom Gloria (Alana Arenas) waits tables. As he struggles to keep his grades up and his teachers happy, in hopes of getting into a prestigious high school, David is drafted by the gang that holds court on the lawn in front of his building. The irony of his predicament is that the same intelligence that offers him a path out of the projects also makes him a priceless asset to the dealers who run them.