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Making

Making Toni Morrison

Making

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture

4.63.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Toni Morrison is widely considered one of America’s greatest writers. She published 11 novels and is the recipient of a Pulitzer, a Nobel and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Sula and Beloved are just a few of her works that are considered great American classics. Before she was a celebrated author, she was a pioneering editor at Random House, opening doors for a whole generation of Black writers, including Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton and Gayl Jones. Her editorship assembled a strong network of the most prominent Black intellectuals of the 20th century. But Toni Morrison’s road to success was not a straight shot. She only published her first novel around 40 years old. And when she found her footing, she changed the face of American literature. On the Making season finale, host Brandon Pope sits down with leading Toni Morrison scholars, including Dana Williams, Carolyn Denard, Autumn Womack and Courtney Thorsson, to unpack the trajectory of an American literary hero. Making tells the story of a different, iconic figure every episode. Subscribe now.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Every time I looked at her, I mean I couldn't even speak. I had to catch my breath.

0:12.0

She believes that language

0:13.5

arks toward the place where meaning might lie.

0:16.5

The rest of us are lucky to be following along for the right.

0:19.2

So many of us feel that we have found ourselves through because of and in relation to Tony.

0:27.0

Those were the voices of Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and Angela Davis, all speaking about

0:38.0

Tony Morrison. She's a woman that turns the most powerful minds on the planet into Getty fans.

0:45.0

From W.B.Z Chicago, this is Making.

0:50.0

I'm Brandon Pope.

0:51.0

Today, it's making Tony Morrison.

0:54.0

I really call myself now a writer because I only write when I can't not do it, but I'm so

1:01.0

compelled to do it.

1:02.0

She's regarded as one of America's great do it, but I'm so compelled to do it.

1:03.0

She's regarded as one of America's greatest literary minds.

1:06.6

Her novels, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon,

1:09.6

and Beloved are just a few of her works

1:12.0

that are considered great American classics.

1:15.4

She pushed the bounds of African American literature in the face of much opposition from the mainstream.

1:21.5

You don't think you will ever change and write books that incorporate white, white lives

1:27.4

into them substantially.

1:28.9

You can't understand how powerfully racist that question is, can you?

1:33.0

But it didn't stop her.

...

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