$10
Admission and $10 off at our bookstore
Out of stock
Tuesday, 6:30 pm EDT February 18, 2020
The Center for Fiction
Since her passing on August 5, 2019, Toni Morrison’s novels, essays, and interviews comfort and continually remind us of her genius. She is one of the most profound writers and thinkers who’s ever lived.
We invite you to gather together on her birthday to honor her awesome legacy. We will screen the award-winning documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am in our auditorium. Under Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ careful direction and in moving interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Hilton Als, Walter Mosley, and many more admirers, Morrison’s incredible journey from a spirited little black girl from Ohio to Pulitzer Prize-winner shines and inspires.
After the screening, director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders joins writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths to discuss Morrison’s impact on the literary canon and our culture.
Featuring
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Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders has achieved critical acclaim photographing world leaders and major cultural figures, including presidents, writers, artists, actors and musicians. His photographs are in many permanent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Brooklyn Museum. Greenfield-Sanders has produced and directed 13 documentary films including Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (PBS), The Black List (HBO), The Latino List (HBO), The Out List (HBO), About Face: Supermodels Then and Now (HBO), The Boomer List (PBS), The Women’s List (PBS) and The Trans List (HBO). He won a Grammy for Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart and an NAACP Image Award for The Black List. His latest film, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, premiered at Sundance in January 2019, screened in over 200 theaters nationwide, and won Audience and Best Documentary awards at numerous festivals. Books on Greenfield-Sanders’ work have been published by Bulfinch, Atria, Luxury and Powerhouse. He received his B.A. from Columbia University and his M.F.A. from The American Film Institute.
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The Pieces I Am
By Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
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 ʼ70s-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 Morrison’s novel Beloved into a feature film.