This past weekend, HBO Max released the HBO special event Between the World and Me. Directed by Kamilah Forbes, the adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ bestselling book was previously an Apollo stage show before being reimagined this year in the midst of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. The special will be available for free on HBOMax.com from November 25 – 30th. It will also be available to stream on HBO.com, on Free on Demand via participating partners, and will re-air on HBO as part of the Thanksgiving free preview weekend.

For those who have never read Between the World and Me, it’s modeled off James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time as an extended letter to a younger family member (for Baldwin it was his nephew, for Coates it’s his teenage son) sharing some cold, hard truths about being Black in America. What I love about both of these books is that they’re so unforgiving in their assessment of our country and its racism. They’re not meant to offer comfort or hope; they’re meant to offer the truth because knowing the truth is the only way to survive. While White people can wrap themselves in myths and homilies (what Coates refers to as “The Dream”), Black bodies inhabit a different world and space that shapes their American experience. It’s a powerful, gorgeously written book and I’m eager to see Forbes’ adaptation.

Here’s the official synopsis for Between the World and Me:

HBO is proud to offer families the opportunity to stream this breathtaking, heartbreaking, and layered film for free. Coates’ book, which is now recognized as a classic of the Black Lives Matter era, has been reimagined during a global pandemic against the backdrop of the killing of Breonna Taylor and global protests for Black lives. BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME is an urgent story of hope and resilience, exploring Coates’ vision of a race built beneath white supremacy, and a people built despite it.