The Great Toni Morrison

Her words were life itself. She did not just set a place at the table for African-American stories in modern literature. She built a new table and set it herself. A Black woman. She was an editor for Random House. She became a novelist. She won a Pulitzer Prize. She won a Nobel Prize. She was a single working mother. Toni Morrison died this week at age 88. I believe in an Afterlife. I believe that when a soul like Toni Morrison's passes over to the other side, it is greeted with applause and declarations of "Job well done!"

To break through, to present the strong stories with strong Black women as the lead characters, to call up the ghosts of America's history of racism in a culture in which so much of news and entertainment comes through a predominantly white male gaze of things, that was major and trailblazing. Now, if you have time, take 6 minutes to watch this Toni Morrison interview clip. The white interviewer wanted to know when Ms. Morrison would start writing about white people.

The puncturing majesty of her response to the question about white characters! That's how I wish I would've responded to white execs running the local WNBC TV news program who told me the performer was "not our audience" when publicists offered me the opportunity to interview artists of color live on the show. Three of the rejected artists were singer Dianne Reeves, singer Patti LaBelle and actress Pam Grier. But the white male co-anchor was given the opportunity to book Pia Zadora for a live interview on the show. That was the early 1990s in New York City.

Here's a trailer for the documentary that was released in June of this year. The documentary is TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM.

Rarely does Hollywood adapt a popular novel from a Black author into a big screen, top studio release. No novel by James Baldwin was ever turned into a film until Barry Jenkins gave us IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK in 2018. Regina King won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in it.

BELOVED, based on Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, was a 1998 film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Oprah Winfrey. Unfortunately, it was a box office bomb. Such a financial disappointment that it caused Oprah Winfrey to charge into her kitchen, find her personal chef and say, "More cornbread. Now! And keep it comin'." She ate away some of her depression. She pretty much revealed that in an interview.

Maybe Toni Morrison's passing will inspire people to revisit the film, BELOVED. Let's think about that year. 1998. Oprah Winfrey was the first Black woman who have her own successful syndicated daytime TV talk show and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination to her credit (1985's THE COLOR PURPLE).

In the days leading into the opening weekend for BELOVED, there were no Black film critics on national TV shows to review it. There were Black critics available. But none was hired by a network TV news show or a syndicated film review show. There was no Black film critic on TV in New York City. On television, the reviews of BELOVED came through the predominantly white male gaze.  Meanwhile -- and I know this from living in New York City at the time -- Black folks were calling their Black friends and reminding them to see BELOVED on its opening weekend to let Hollywood know we supported it. I got a couple of such calls on my answering machine.

But we were outnumbered by Caucasian America going to see Adam Sandler as THE WATERBOY, making him #1 at the box office for 3 consecutive weekends. BELOVED featured two Black actresses with Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations in their credits -- Oprah Winfrey and Beah Richards (1967's GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER). Reviews were good and a few critics hailed the performance of Beah Richards. Roger Ebert called it "electric." BELOVED was the actress' last film. She died in 2000. Here she is as Baby Suggs in a clip from the 1998 production:

Toni Morrison. The power of her work lives on to give us power.