In my 20s, she sat me down and I talk about this in the book.

She said, why did you never take your writing seriously?

And I said, well, of course I did.

I love to write.

You know, I love to write.

She said, no, why did you never pursue it professionally?

And to be honest with you, I don't think I even realized this at the time that she said that to me.

I just didn't really understand there was such a thing as a Latina writer.

I just didn't understand that existed.

This is our first episode that resulted from a Twitter meet cute.

One of our listeners suggested that we speak to Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright,

Kiara Alegria-Hudis.

And she enthusiastically agreed on Twitter.

But she warned us we'd have to move fast after penning three musicals and two plays.

Kiera is now writing a memoir, and she's about to disappear into her work.

But right now, she's here.

Here I am.

What's the memoir?

It's about the late 80s and early 90s when I kind of came of age as a girl in Philadelphia.

And it's my spiritual awakening during the time of the crack epidemic, the AIDS crisis,

and how I became a writer and a storyteller through a series of kind of spiritual events.

You've told so many other people's stories.

...