Chewed Water: A Memoir

Playwright Aishah Rahman, born Virginia Hughes, writes a poignant account of events marking her first 18 years growing up in Harlem as the foster child of a troubled woman. Chewed Water vividly weaves the complex relationship between a young girl and her foster mother, simultaneously evoking a vital neighborhood that still preserved some of the glory of the Harlem Renaissance while it also began to stumble under the burdens of racism, poverty, and drugs.