I'm Jonathan Kapart and welcome to Kapart. The story behind the incredible Hulu series Black Cake was described by the Washington Post as a quote

penetrating look at a delicacy filled with emotional turmoil.

Black Cake was adapted from the New York Times best-selling book of the same name by Charmaine Wilkerson

that tells an intergenerational intersectional story of a black American family learning the truth about

their Jamaican and Chinese mother from her after her death. In this conversation first recorded for Washington Post live on December 6th,

creator and showrunner Marissa Joe Surr

and actor Adrian Warren take us inside this multi-layered series.

Warren talks about how Black Cake strives to counter the strong black woman narrative.

Sarard gets into the importance of showing stories of black and brown people that are not about the civil rights movement, slavery, or oppression.

And she explains why Black Cake needed to be a multi episode series and not a movie. I just didn't know how you

would tell all of these stories in two to two and a half hours or three hours.

I wanted to tell every character story. It is not just Covey's story. It is not just Eleanor story. It is Benny's story. It is Byron's story. It this Mabel's story.

And I just wanted to really go deep and explore,

you know, what would really happen if you're Mabel and you find out

that your parents have lied to you about your adoption

and your identity, your entire life.

All right, I'm just going to tell you, I wasn't able to get through all the episodes,

but I just want you to know.

I tried to get through all the episodes.

It's that good.

It like pulls you way, way in.

But we gotta let people know what this is about so Marissa Joe let me start with you

...