EBONY's April 2022 cover star Teyana Taylor graces the screen in the new film A Thousand and One. The multihyphenate and Harlem legend stars as Inez, a mother who goes to whatever lengths—including kidnapping— to protect and nurture her six-year-old son Terry in New York. The film recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

EBONY Correspondent Yonathan Elias attended the New York red carpet premiere of A Thousand and One and chatted with writer/director A.V. Rockwell, producer Lena Waithe, and the stars of the film including Taylor, Will Catlett and Josiah Cross.

"I think it's important to tell this story—even for me as a mom and as a daughter—because it's so eye-opening to many of the changes that were happening at that time. As a child, we were young and didn't know. So to be able to go back and relive what the women around me lived as a single parent. It was very heavy," said Teyana Taylor about the raw storytelling within the film.