Danielle Deadwyler To Produce And Star In Film Adaptation Of Ann Petry’s Seminal Novel, ‘The Street’

The African American literary canon continues to inspire! Danielle Deadwyler is set to produce and star in the film adaptation of Ann Petry’s seminal 1946 novel, ‘The Street.’ The novel chronicles the tragic survival journey of protagonist Lutie Johnson in a World War II-era Harlem plagued by racism, poverty, sexism, and an unreachable American Dream for Black people. Co-producers on this project include Michael Sherman and Alix Madigan, with Gina Atwater writing the script and serving as executive producer.

‘The Street’ is Ann Petry’s first novel, a genre-defying staple in the African American literary canon that illuminates the complex lived experiences of working-class Black women through the story of Lutie Johnson. What does it mean for a Black woman to survive the unsurvivable? How does Black love persist when the system usurps her husband from the home? What does the future look like for a Black mother who is forced to leave her only child in the past, only for him to be enveloped by a system that crushes Black children’s dreams? Where does a Black woman find freedom when the streets are littered with imaginary traps, ready to clutch her ankles and immobilize her at will? These are some of the questions that undergird Petry’s novel, and both literary and film fans are eager to see Deadwyler bring this story to life in what’s expected to be another culture-defining portrayal of Black motherhood in cinema.

Ann Petry’s ability to explore such layered questions with literary precision is a testament to the breadth of her talent and the legacy she built throughout her career. Petry was a teacher, pharmacist, journalist, and prominent writer whose works rose to fame during the 1930s through 1970s.The Street, originally published by Houghton Mifflin Company, garnered much success as it became the first novel by an African American author to sell more than one million copies. Petry went on to write other notable works including Country Place (1947), The Drugstore Cat (1949), The Narrows (1953), Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad (1955), Tituba of Salem Village (1964), Legends of Saints (1970), and Miss Muriel and Other Stories (1971). Together, these works demonstrate her range of storytelling across genres, generations, and literary traditions.

Inspired by her experience living in 1940s New York City, Ann Petry wrote The Street with a deep connection to Harlem’s community of arts and activism. As a member of Harlem’s American Negro Theatre, she performed onstage as Tillie Petunia in Abram Hill’s On Striver’s Row. Petry also worked at an after-school program at P.S. 10, organized with the Negro Women Inc., and studied creative writing at Columbia University from 1944 to 1946. In Harlem, she witnessed dimensions of Black life that differed from her own experiences prior to moving to New York City, and these experiences shaped the novel’s richly layered themes. Themes in the novel such as urban housing crises, slum lords, class segregation, racism, poverty, crime, and street violence reverberated throughout 1940s Harlem, and set the stage and backdrop for one of the most important texts in American literature.

Now, Danielle Deadwyler is set to bring Petry’s star character to life in the highly anticipated film adaptation. Renowned for her powerful portrayals of mothers fighting to protect their children in star performances in Till (2022) and The Woman in the Yard (2025), fans are excited to see her extraordinary range extend to this new role centering the depth and complexity of Black motherhood.

–Dominique Young