Event

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

An artful and intimate meditation on the life and works of the legendary storyteller and Nobel prize-winner. From her childhood in the steel town of Lorain, Ohio, to 70s-era book tours with Muhammad Ali, from the front lines with Angela Davis to her own riverfront writing room Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, America, history and the human condition as seen through the prism of her own literature. Inspired to write because no one took a little black girl seriously, Morrison reflects on her lifelong deconstruction of the master narrative. Woven together with a rich collection of art, history, literature and personality, the film includes discussions about her many critically acclaimed works, including novels The Bluest Eye, Sula and Song of Solomon, her role as an editor of iconic African-American literature and her time teaching at Princeton University. Featuring interviews with Hilton Als, Angela Davis, Fran Lebowitz, Walter Mosley, Sonia Sanchez and Oprah Winfrey, who turned Morrisons novel Beloved into a feature film.

"When it's over, you feel like a beloved friend has left the room." Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

"It reminds us how long she had to wait for the recognition she so richly deserved, and what a distinctive, generous, funny, astute, self-doubting, unstoppable and formidable figure she was along the way." -WSJ

"The Pieces I Am" offers something else, as a dividend yielded by her achievements and her years on the earth: the profound pleasure of her company." - A.O. Scott, NY Times

"A portrait of a writer who has always dared to reflect the world as she sees it: as ugly as it is beautiful, where black characters have the agency to be as bold, hurtful, and triumphant as everyone else." - Candice Frederick, The Wrap