Parenthood
Nina and Miles are a young couple who just became new parents. Being a parent completely changes a person. Nina fiercely represents most mothers we all know and love. She is always on her feet doing something essential in the house. She is proficient, despite her inner conflicts and doubts about being an effective Korean mother. She even hires a nanny with deep Korean roots so that she can instill some of her heritage into her daughter. She often feels like she doesn’t get the credit she deserves. Nina’s business partner Kit feels like Nina puts all her focus on the baby and her new life. She ignores everything she’s going through as a new parent in the city. Miles, on the other hand, finds it hard to connect with his wife and daughter because of his insecurities. The title of the play itself works as a symbol of what it means to be a parent and all the roller coasters a couple of may go through, especially an interracial couple.
Gentrification
Nina and Miles have moved into this new neighborhood which has an ever-changing dynamic. Miles is jobless and Nina has to juggle the baby and work. Moving into a gentrifying community might seem exciting at first but like all good things, they soon experience the bad side. In such a community different types of people are all in one place which is a good environment for an interracial family. But just because they all live together doesn’t mean they will get along. Because they live in a diverse pool, oftener than not they start to categorize each other which has a way of looking like segregation. Living as an interracial couple in an economically mixed community is not as easy as one would think. It changes the very idea of what a community is supposed to be.
Racial Identity
Nina is an Asian-American while Miles is African-American. They are in an interracial marriage. Nina and Miles are struggling to come to terms with their identities in this environment. They are conflicted whether to push themselves into the Brooklyn interracial community or create their version of it. Before they moved to Brooklyn, their difference in race wasn’t a problem, but now Nina as a mother is conflicted because living in America has cost her a great deal of her Korean heritage which she had hoped to pass on to her daughter. Miles, on the other hand, being an African-American orphan and getting adopted by an all-white family has created uncertainty about his heritage as well which makes it impossible for them to connect with their newborn.
