A Warrior Who Fought With Her Words: Toni Morrison
A collage is used to show the metamorphosis of the late Toni Morrison's physical self, from refined young, striking beauty to gorgeous, giggling gray-haired matriarch. The way her collage-like Black Book served as a shocking, artfully true compilation of American blackness, the documentary The Pieces I Am is just as true for the writer's life.
Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison is famed for telling truths in classics such as Beloved and Sula, utilizing her experience navigating through life as a black woman.
The documentary screened Thursday, February 20, in the Santa Monica College (SMC) Student Services Orientation Hall in Santa Monica. It was presented by California poets Bridgette Robinson and Will Doucet. "It is a privilege and an honor to be asked to be here and share thoughts on Toni Morrison," said Doucet in the introduction to the film. "For me, Toni Morrison, the richness of her imagery, the depth of the storytelling. She just really seemed to capture my life, the lives of people I knew. There is such a love for language in the work, and a love for black people in the work. That- in high school, Shakespeare was my favorite writer. I thought there is the pinnacle of the English language. But I have not thought that since reading Toni Morrison, who I still see as the pinnacle of English language literature."
Those interviewed in the film, from Oprah Winfrey to Angela Davis, shared a similar allegiance in their voices for Morrison. She ruled Oprah’s book club. “I chose four of her books,” Oprah can be quoted saying in the film. “I wanted the world, as many people who could hear my voice, to understand the importance of her work.”
Poet Sonia Sanchez adds, “You should re-read Toni Morrison every 10 or 15 years because… we have to reimagine ourselves on this American landscape. You won’t survive if you don’t do that.” In the documentary, interviews with the writer span decades, and she is transparent about everything: "being loose" in college, the true difficulties of single motherhood, and even the profound loss of her father and how it inspired her third novel, Song of Solomon.
The two and a half hours of the film felt like chatting with a good old friend.
Morrison humbly tells the story of growing up in Lorain, Ohio, discovering the power of words and herself, all while blackness found its power in America.
Far ahead of her time, Morrison was often the only woman or only person of color in her workplaces. Morrison doesn't deny being marginalized, but she hardly waved a flag of triumph for the feat. She remarked, "Navigating a white male world wasn't threatening. It wasn't even interesting."
While Morrison was proud to be a black writer, the film notes, she was often accused of writing only for blacks. She answers this accusation when she reads from Song of Solomon in the film, and, as Milkman, shouts, "you want me? Huh? You want my life? Life, life, life, life." Remaining true to the writer, the film shows that Morrison wrote for life, not race, but she didn't shy away from race either.
The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s first novel, has faced bans in US school districts recently. Buncombe County, North Carolina and North Hills, Michigan both threatened to remove it from the syllabus in the last three years. The novel spotlights three black little girls and the lifestyles they carry as soon-to-be black women in Depression-era America. The documentary states it was the first novel to address racism from the perspective of the internal pain it inflicts on children.
Morrison’s death in 2019 struck readers, super-fans, and close friends alike.“It seemed very poetic that this really great work would be released by some of her most intimate friends in tribute to her shortly before she passes,” said Robinson. Morrison’s influence often stretched deeply into her readers. Robinson added “I attended Howard university because of Toni Morrison. I read her books in high school and college, that changed who I was as a writer. So, I think that we are all owing a debt to the legacy of Toni Morrison....and what she ushered into the literary space.”
In honor of Black History Month, the Black Collegians will also be presenting AND iDANCED on Wednesday, February 26 and True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality on Thursday, February 27 in the Student Services Orientation Hall.