Alfred Brooks

Alfred Brooks is a black 17-year-old high school dropout who lives with his Aunt Pearl in Harlem in the mid-1960s. Alfred’s father left when he was very young, and his mother died when he was 13. Alfred works at Epsteins’ Grocery Store and spends his evenings at the movies or walking through the streets thinking. For most of his life he had his best friend James to help him deal with the world around him, but Alfred and James have grown apart and Alfred finds himself lacking direction and is confused by the changes happening around him. When James is arrested during a robbery at Epsteins’, Alfred blames himself. As walks through the streets trying to make sense of what happened, he finds himself in front of Donatelli’s Gym, a place where boxing champions have trained. When he enters the gym he finds the owner...