Through six sections, including poems and a short story, When You Ask Me Where I’m Going delivers a powerful exploration of young womanhood in an often unfriendly world and tells the story of a young mother fleeing home to raise her daughter.
A talented artist and poet, Amal is a sixteen-year-old student at a fine arts school with a bright future. However one night at the park, he and his friends are involved in an altercation with a group of white teens from the gentrified upper-middle-class side of town, which ends with one of them unconscious in the hospital and Amal on trial for a crime he didn’t commit.
Yahaira Rios lives in New York, and every year her father leaves for the Dominican Republic for the summer. Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and lives for the summers when her father returns from the US. When their father dies in a plane crash on his way to the Dominican Republic, both his daughters are forced to reckon with the tragedy of his death.
Xiomara Batista longs to be able to express herself freely, without fear of her religious mother punishing her. She wants to be allowed to question her religion, date boys and escape the sexual harassment she faces daily. To free her thoughts, she writes them down as poetry in a notebook her twin brother gave her.
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