(Above screenshot from YouTube)
“Moonlight” will be getting a permanent honor in Miami.
Miami New Times reports that a street located in Miami-Dade County’s Liberty City will be renamed “Moonlight Way.” The street stretches from NW 22nd Avenue from NW 61st Street to NW 66th Street.
The area is close to where “Moonlight” was filmed and nearby where director Barry Jenkins and co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up.
“This movie — at least what I got from it — really depicts the life of how a lot of us were raised and what we had to go through and endure as children in the inner city,” Miami Commissioner Audrey Edmonson told Miami New Times. “This goes out to children still living here in the inner city that are told they’ll never amount to anything. It shows that it doesn’t matter how you were raised or where you grew up; you can still turn out to be someone.”
Jenkins and McCraney frequently mention the impact their hometown has had in the making of the film. McCraney gave a shout-out to Liberty City while accepting the award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
“We can really be here and be somebody, two boys from Liberty City up here onstage representing the 305,” McCraney told the crowd.
Jenkins and McCraney will return to their roots in Miami this weekend for the “Moonlight Celebration” at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center.
