GOLD COAST LIES

Julia is a young Black girl from the low income housing projects of Chicago, attending East Riverside High a public school in the hood where she stands out not just for her talent in school plays, but because she's smarter than everyone around her, sometimes even to her own disadvantage. Seeing her potential, her principal, Mrs. Atkins, pushes her to apply and audition for a prestigious private art and ballet academy on the other side of the city known in her neighborhood as the "Gold Coast."

Against the odds, Julia gets accepted into the academy, a majority white institution with about a 20% Black student population, filled with wealth, status, and opportunity. From the outside, the school appears polished, elite, and perfect full of big names, donations, and success stories. But from the inside, it's something else entirely.

Behind the glitz and glamour lies a dark world of hidden agendas, lies, payoffs, sexual assault, bribery, and drugs where students, parents, and even school officials are entangled in dangerous secrets. As Julia navigates this new environment, she finds a few trustworthy friends, but trust is fragile in a place like this.

As everything begins to unravel, Julia must face the truth: will she survive and rise to become the well known ballerina she dreams of being, or will she get pulled into the school's devious and corrupt world
and lose herself in the process?