Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
Features Hilton Als, Angela Davis, Fran Lebowitz, Walter Mosley, Sonia Sanchez, Oprah Winfrey and others
Premiere
Date: Tuesday, June 23 at 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings),
pbs.org/tonimorrison and the PBS Video app as part of PBS’ summer-long
celebration of women trailblazers.
Synopsis:
American Masters — Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am is
an artful and intimate meditation on the legendary Nobel and Pulitzer
Prize-winning author that examines her life,
her works and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her
literary career. 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 “Beloved,”
“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. In addition to Morrison, the film features new interviews
with Hilton Als, Angela Davis, Fran Lebowitz,
Walter Mosley, Sonia Sanchez and Oprah Winfrey, who turned “Beloved”
into a feature film. Using director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ elegant
portrait-style interviews, American Masters — Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
includes original music by Kathryn Bostic, a specially created
opening sequence by artist Mickalene Thomas and evocative works by other
contemporary African American artists including Kara Walker, Rashid
Johnson and Kerry James Marshall.
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