12/25/19 12/25/19 [captioning made possible amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> "we live here. we live e here!! on thihis planet, this s natio, in t this county. and if i got a home, you got one too! so grab it. grab this laland! take this land!

hold this land, my brothers. ain't nobody cryin' in my home. i want you to o take this land, make i it, my brothers,, shake it, squeeze it, tuturn it, twist it, beat it, kick it, kiss it, whip it, stomp it, dig i it, plow it, seed it, reap it, rent it,t, buy it, sell it, own it, , build itit, multiply it and pass it on. you hear me? do you heaear me? pass it on!" amy: oprah winfrey readingng toni morrison, one of the nation's most influential writers. morrison died in august at the age of 88. today we spend the hour at the celebratition of her lie at the cathedral of st. john the divine with those who knew and loved her from angela davis, author ta-nehisi coates, edwidge danticat, fran lebowitz, and more.

this is democracy now!, democracy now.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today in a scicial broadcacast, we spendnd the hour remembering toni morrison, one of the nation's most influential writers, who died in august at the age of 88 from complications of pneumonia. in 1993, toni morrison became the first african-american woman to receive the nobel prize for literature. she also won a pulitzer prize in 1988 for her classic work "beloved." toni morrison was born in lorain, ohio, in 1931. she did not publish her first novel, "the bluest eye," until she was 39 years old. she wrote it while taking care of her two young sons as a single mother and juggling a day job as a book editor at random house. as an editor, she's widely credited with helping widen the literary stage for african americans and feminists.

much of morrison's writing focused on the female black experience in america. her work was deeply concerned with race and history, especially the sin and crime of transatlantic slavery and the potentially restorative power of community. in 2012, president obama awarded toni morrison the presidential medal of freedom. pres. obama: toni morrison, she is used to a little distraction as a single mother working at a publishing company by day, carve out a little time the evening to write, often with her two sons pulling on her hair and tugging at her earrings. once a baby spit up on her tablet, so she wrote around it. circumstances may not have been ideal, but the words that came out were magical. toni morrison's prose brings us that kind of moral and emotional intensity that few writers ever attempt from "song of solomon"

to "beloved," she reaches as deeply using a tone that is lyrical, precise, distinct, and inclusive. she believes language arcs towards the place where meaning might lie. the rest of us are lucky to be following along for the ride. amy: upon her death, president obama said -- "toni morrison was a national treasure. her writing was not just beautiful but meaningful -- a challenge to our conscience and a call to greater empathy." this is an interview that toni morrison gave to the australian n journalist jana vendt in n 1998, for the program "toni morrison: uncensored." >> you don't think you'll ever change and write books that incorporarate white lives into t them substantially? >> you can't understatand how powerfulully racsist thatat question is, can you? you u could never asask a white author,,

when are y you going to write about t black people? whether you u did or notot, or s she didid or not. eveven the inquiry comes f froa position o of being in the centr and being usused to being in the centeter. and saying, is it evever possibe you'll enter the mainstream? it is inconceivablble that wheri already am is the maininstream. >> oh, no, that wawas not the implicication ofof my quest. i think you are very much in the mainstream. it is a question of the subject of your narrative,e, whether you wawant to alalter the paparameters o of it, whether r you see any benefit in doing that or whehether you clearly see disadvantages in doing it fromom your own poinint of vi. >> there arere no pluses for m. being an africican-american wrir is sort of likike being a a russian writer.

he writes about russia in russian f for russians. and the fafact that it gets translated and read by othehepeople is a benenefit, it is a plus. but he is not obligedd to ever consider writing about french p people or americans o or anybody. amy: that's totoni morrison beininteterviewed by t the well-known australian journalist jana vendndt in 199. well, today we remember toni morrison through ththose who knew anand loved her -- editors, writers, musicians -- as we bring you highlights from a celebration of her life, a memorial, that took place here in new york on november 21 at cathedral of st. john the divine. it drew thousands. we begin with oprah winfrey, who produced and starred in the 1998 film adadaptation of morrison'n's "beloved." oprah's bobook club also brougt toni morrison's novels to a wide audiencece. >> the first time i came face-to-o-face with toni morriso

was in maya anangelou's backyad for a gathering of some of the most illustrious blacack people you have ever heard of to celebrate tonini morrisoson's nonobel prize victory. my head and d my heart wewere swiwirling. every time i looked at her, i mean, couldn't even speak. i had toatchch my breaeath. and i i was seateded across from her at dinner and there was a moment when i saw miss momorrison just gesture to the waiter for some water, and i almost trippeded over myself trying to get up from the table to get it fofor her. and mayaya said, "sit down." we have people h here to do tha.

you're a guest." so i sat down. i obeyed, of course. but it was not e easy, i tell y, to sitit still o or to keep myself inside my body. i felt like i was all of seven years old. because after all, she was s there. and so many othersrs that da mamari evans. sister angela davis was there. nikki giovanni was there. rita dove s s there. toni cade bambara was ththere. itit was a w writers'' mecc. and d i was there sitting at the table taking it all in. and as i look backck, that day remains one of the e great thrilllls of my li. you know, i didn't rereally g go speak k to toni morrison that d. i was just too b bedazzled. but i had already previously called her upp to ask about acquiring the film rights toto "beloved."

after i finished reaeading it, i found heher number, called he, and when i asked her, "is it true that sometimes people have to read over your work in order to understand it, to get the full meaning?" and shshe bluntly replied, "tha, mymy dear, is calllled readin" [laughter] i was embarrassed. but that statement a actually ge me the confidence years later when i formemed the book club on the oprah shohow to choose her work. i chose more of her bobooks thn any otother author over the yea. "song of sololomon," first, "sulula," "the bluest eye" and "paradise." and if any one of our viewers ever complained thatat it was hard going or challenging reading toni morrison,

i sisimply said, "thatat, my d, is called d reading." there was no distance between toni morrison and her words. i loved heher novels. but lately, i've bn n rereadinig her essays, which undederscore that she was also one of our most influential public intellectuals. in one essay, she said, "if writining is t thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mymystery and magic.c." and this - -- "facts can exist without human intelligence, but truth cannot." she thought deeply about the role of the artist and concluded d that wtersrs are among the most s sensitive, momost intellectuaually anarch, most representatative, most probing of all the artists. she believeved it was a write's job to rip the veil off,

toto bore down to the truth. she took t the canon and she broke e it opepen. among her legacies, the writers she paveved the wafor,r, many of themem here in t this beautifuful space tonight celebratating her. toni morrison was her words. she is her words. for r her words ofoften were confrontational. she spoke the unspoken, she probed the unexplored, she wrotote of eliminatiting the e white gaze, of not wanting to spspeak for black pepeople but wanting to speak to them. toto bamamong them.. to be among all people. her words don't permit the reader to down them quickly and foforget them. we know that. they refefuse to be skimmemed. ththey will not be igngnored. they can gut y you, turn you upside down, make you think you just don't t get it.. but when you finally do, when you finally do, and you alalways will when y you open yourself

to what she is offering, you experience, as i have many times reading toni morrison, a kind of emancipation, a liberation, anan ascension to ananother lel of understanding. because by taking us down there amid the pain, the shadows, shshe urges s us to keep goin, to keep feeling, to k keep trying to figure it all out with her words and her stories as guide and companion. and she asks u us to follow our own pain, to reckon with it, and at last, to transcend it. and while she is no longer on this earth, her magnificent soul, her boundless imagination, her fierce passion, heher gallantry -- she told me once, "i've alwayays known i was s gallant." [laughter]

who says that?t? [laughghter] who even knows they are gallant? well, her gallantry remains always to help us navigate our way through. amy: that's oprah winfrey. we'll hear more from her at the end o of the brbroadca. this is toni morrison's publisher, erroll mcdonald. >> the united states s senate inin a rare shshow of bipartisap approve ththe resolution honorig toni morrisoson's life and legay put forth by sherrodod brown, and d rob portrtman, mocratat and repubublican, respectively of ohio, where toni was born. the resoluluti pointedly includes toni morrrrison in t the patriarchal americaniterary cacanon, citing hawawthorne, melville,

twain, emersrson, whitman, and faulkner as her peers.s. but toni morrison trtranscends this w well intentioned if parochial commendation. she is no mere great americican writer, a free artist of herself. she is a w world historical figure. a totowering preresence inin thd republic of leletters who has had a a seismic impapt on the global economy of literarary prestige. so it is t that we havgaththerd in this house at this time to offer a collective praise song in celebration of toni morrison's life, a a life evermore ababout toto be as genenerations today anand to come read her work. let's s all rejoice asas we exl the e richness of her personhoo,

the sublimy y of her a art, the exceptptionalism of her s stature, and the popower ofof her mororal imagination. amy: that's toni morrison's publisher erroll mcdonald. this is haitian-american writer, edwidge danticat. >> hello again, miss morrisoso. i've been seeing you everywhere since you surrendedered to the r and took your r flight. i see you and bleak skies that are as s seductiveve as sunshi. i see e you anand daisy trees. i see you and benches by the road. i hear your voice in church hymns, spirituals and d in jazz tunes. becacause you were, as you wroe of jay dean and tar baby, not only a woman, but a sound, all the music we h have ever wanted d to pl,

as well as a world and a way of being in it. i keep seeing you, too, in shiny, beautiful hair pins weave through gray locks. each time you gifted me one of those hair pins, i felt as though you were sharing pieces of your infininite crown with h. i still feel your presence and your sister writer friends who folded me in your embrace. your work. my goodness, the work is sublime. and we do not just read itit. we e experience it. you gave us both lullabies and babattle cries, you turn pain into flesh, and you brought spirits to life. you urged us to be dangerously free. you led this foreigner to a d different type of home.

your work k has carried me ththrough adolesescence and marriage to parenthood and orphanhoodod. i have recited and pararaphrase your sentetences t to myself whwhile cradling the tiny bodis of my newborn daughter they get bigger,r, older but grown. whatat's ththat supposed to me? and the skeletetal faceses ofy dying g parents, soft as cream. i hoped that thehey woululd go t as c cream. and i came to think of you as you w wrote in "the bluest e" as somebody with hands, who dodoes not w want me to d. death h is as natural as life. and you sure didid live in this world. some of f us calleled you moth. some of usus called yoyou grandmother, grandfatherer

some of f us called you sister, salvar. many i in this room called you teacher, ediditor, mentor.r. we called yoyou our beloved. others called you u friendnd, which is no casual title to o y. because friendndship is a kind of releligion in your work,, inincluding friendships of the mind. we still call you by those names, but now w we will also call y you timeless. we now also o call youou ances. amy:y: that was haitian-amererican writer, edwidge dandicat speaking at thehe celebtion o of life for toni morrison. we'llll continue to look at her life and legacy after this break.  [music break]

amy: that's s shi reagonon performing "there and back again" at the c celebration of life of toni morrison. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue with the toni morrison memorialal at the cathedral ofo. johnhn the divine in new york. toni morrison was the first african-american woman to win the nobel prize for literature. she also won a pulitzer prize. at her memorial, thousands packed in.

we turn now to professor, author and activist angela davis, once hunted by the fbi, imprisoned and exonerated. her autobiography was edited by toni morrison. >> soon after my first encounter with toni morrison, she became my editor. i i probably wouldld not have written an autobobiography if anyone other than toni had apppproached me. and for me today, the realal significance of that book is the arena it created for an instant friendship that lasted almost h half a century.y. i was s her housemate for a whi. according to herer, she was s also my handler. when we traveled together on tour. we were traveling g companions bothth within and beyond the contntinentatal united sta.

we jogged together in spring valley. we hiked in the virgin islands, we e explored scandinavia together. she was my big sister, a friend who made me feel that without her fririendship, i could never r have becomome o i imagine e myself to o be tod. so many of us feel that t we hae found ourselves throug because of an in relation to toni and her work. i was in my late 20's when we met. and d although she w was in her earlyly 40's, shwawas not yeyet toni m morri, the internationally acclaimed writer, but t she was on a mission to open the u.s. publishing industry to black writers and activists. i wanted t to give back somethig she later saidid to hilton als

i wa''marcrching. i dididn't go to o anything. i dididn't join anything. but i could makeke sure there ws a pupublished d record of those who did mararch and dd put themselves on the linene. toni also understood much better than anyone else,, i believe,e, that deep radical change happens not so much beuse peoplele march and put themseselves on the line -- however important this kind of activism might be -- but t rather because we collectively learn to imagine ourselves on different terms with the world. we r realize tt wewe can chanange along wiwith the conditions of our lives and d that i it is the e task of writers and other artists to help produce the prprofou shihifts.

ththis is why she wrote and ths is why she published authors like tony cade bombara gale jones, henry dumars,, who was shot to deatath by a new yorkk transit police officer in 1968. nonothing wawas serendndipitous. i don't remember formalities when we first t met. one moment i had no ideaea who totoni morrison wawas. and the next moment, it felt like we had been friends forever. i leararned m much from t to. the evocative elementt of perception and language, the expansiveness of the polititical beyond traraditional realms of power, the importanance of identifying and attempting to contest the white gaze, the mamale gaze.

but what i value most among all of her many gifts isis how she demonstratedd a way of bei in n the worlrld that allowed her s simultaneouoy to inhnhabit m multiple didimen. she was alwaysys here and there e at the same time, totally presenent with you but also at the same time creating new universes. many years ago when her sosons were quite y young, i wawas staying wiwith them in spring g valley. toni had already written "the bluest eyeye" and "sula." she had already made breakfast every morning before heading to the city where shshe would drop o off the boys at school and be in her office at random house by 9:00. she always began her writing early in the morning, but would jot t down ideas throughout the day. i remembmber one mornining whene was cookining eggs, i believe.

while the eggs were on the stove, she reaches for her yellow pad and pencil -- which was always nearby -- and jotted something down. again and again. i remember her doing this when we werere driving when the traffic would come to a halt, foror example, at the george washington bridge. she was writing "song of sololomon." and all of this time she had been engaged with milkman and hagar and pilot and the other characters. she wawas obviously fulllly invd with them. the book itself isis the eviden. but at thehe same e time, she was absolutely present for her young sosons or while driving or in conversation. she was never only partially paying attttention.. she was always 100% engaged.

this is why i think our vision was so extraordinary. she never drew stark lines separating fiction, and the real in her fiction was often much more real than reaeality,, and espepecially the currenent political realit. toni last visited me and my partner in oakland a few years ago.o. and we talked repeatedly of her upcoming visit when we would, in california, go up to the country to see the night sky and especially the milky way. she was inhabiting one of the characters in her next novel, a boy who love the night sky. and so i think of her now exploring the infinitude of our galaxy. we are probably all reflecting on the fact that so mamany out in the world a morning toni morrison

and are proclaiming that she has not gone because her extraordinary work feelels the void -- fills the void that was createdd by herassing. but we who knew her, who know her, and certainly treasure her work, for us, it is the greatest challengege to ourur collective imagination to envnvision a world without the glorious laughter of our dear, dear toni. amy: that's professor angela davis. this is author fran lebowitz. >> many years ago, i was on a a book totour with hk that was doing very wewell until it got a truly terrible review on the new york times. nini was in n paris. i was in either portland or seattle.

know t there's supposeded to be some v vast difference between these two. [laughter] but i can never remember what that is. deitite the ththousand hour time difference, tonini called me from pas.s. listen, she e said, ththis doesn't mean a thing. this has nothingo o do wiwith your book. this is personal. this guy just doesn't like you. [lauaughter] what? [laughter] don't take it seriously, she said. rereviews aren't important. books are important. yoyou have to o learn to ignoe these kind of reviews like i did. don't you remember whehen this persrson said that about me? don't you remember when that person said this about me? no, i said, of course i did not. so she then proceeded to quote word for word -- [laughter]

at l least halalf a dozezen or bad reviews, nonene of which she said mattered at a all. [laughghter] and manyny of toni''s bad revis were a aolutely y despicablel. they reeked of misogyny and racism. so w what kindnd of friend was ? toni was the kind of friend who called you to read you her bad reviews. but as toni got t older, she kind o of lost her gripp on her bad r reviews and genuininely seememed to shrugug them off.f. this enraged me. [laughter] how can you talk t to that guy, i wowould say. don't you rememember what h he wrote about you? oh, well, she would reply. it w was a lonong time a ag. i don't really care. but i really cared. so i i assigned myself the taskf holding tony's grudges for her.

[laughter] she found this exextremely entertaining. but i was perfrfectly serious. and i still am [laughter] so please, let's keep that in mind. thank yoyou. amy: thahat's author fran lebowitz. this is ta-nehisi coates. he won the national book award for "between the wororld and me" >> it has taken me some time to truly understand how much i owe toni morrison. what i know is when i was young the shsheer poetry and economy of her is enthralled me. thatat i grew ololder and the census deepened fofor e as i i came to appreciate what that poetry and economy was doing, how it g gave voice e to a paint was at once didistant and d cl.

what i know is i've been rereading toni morrison since her passin and i'm amazazed how only now at thihis late hour i've comome to appppreciate whwhat everyone hehere must already apprereate. toni mororrison wawas really fu, darkly, darkly humumorous. what i know is that toni morrison taught me e the meaning of grown fololks literature. the kind that, to paraphrase mymy sister jasmine, is as merciless withth its chaharacters and as mererciless with us asas life itseself. but like a t trenchant memory, we are drawn back to t that wor. and slowly we come to see the lesson the grgrown folks literarature is t trying to bestow on us.s. toni morrison n has been beststowing lessonons on me for my entirire life. to explain what i mean by this, i have to take you back to 1974 before i was born and into my father''s smalll stggliling bookstotore on penennsylvaninia avenue in west baltltimore.

if you gone in that store in 1 1974, u u would hahave foundnd copief what my y father considerered te one of the most magical books h'd everer encountntered. and that's because e this book was alall about him, all about black people. and the book wasas not so much a a book as work o of visual a , a pastiche o of ancient t ps,, antebebellum newewspaper c clip, handbills, q quilt work, photographphs, song lyrics anand poetry. this marvel was called "the blackck book,"" and my dad had n never seenen anything lilike it. he w wondered how itit could e that the whitete folks in publishing had brought such a thing to be. there was s no authohor identid on the cover of the black book and thus no way of knowing that t this book of magic was not the e work of white f folks at all. it was the work of toni morrison. my d''s bookokstore was not long for this world, sadly.

but "the black book" was. when he shutut down the storoe in the late 1970's, he brorought it hohome, put it in his library, where it sat waititing for his young son to discover. "the black book" was the first work of toni morrison ever encountered. it was chaotic t to me. printing f fonts which switchh on the s same page. the imagery sometimemes of samb, otother times of blackck men. the life o of the titimes ofof the enslaveved was haunti. i did not like "the blacack boo" but i was vevery much arresteded by it. in the era before smsmartphones in googl i spent hours flipping through its s pages, imbibing lessons on aesthetics, that only now, like lilife itse, like grown folks l literature, are being revealed to me. i i think k that the pririncipal lesson w was this. black is b beautiful. but it a ain't always pretttt.

indeed, , for black to be beautiful, it musust very often not bebe pretty.y. that beauty must ache. that beauty must sometimes repulse, eveven as it enchants, evenen as it enthrhralls. so toni morrison was with h me s a child in my parerents' librar. she was with m me at howaward universityy when i walkeked in her flowing shadow and saw her in 1995 give the annual charterer day addddr. she was with me as i sought my own voice as a writer. and she was with me when i pubublished my own work. and she was not there to anoint me or even celebrate me. she was there to c challengege, toto force mee to remember my lineaeage, to rememember the stanandard that was set b before me by all my literary ancestors, including now, the queen of them all, toni morrison herself.

to not indulge in gallantry to not indulge in pretty, and to remember that this is not a fairy tale. this is grown folks literature. thank you. amy: that is prize-winning author ta-nehisi coates. this is kevin young, poet and director of the schomburg center for research in black culture. >> it isis an honor to be here celebrating our genius toni morririson and this august place. thisis, as you know, is a s sacred space. not least of which because it is resident with writing and wririters, who, like morrison, wrote themseselves freree. it is also, as you know, the space where james baldwin's funeral was held in 1987 when tononi morrison offerered a eulogy for herer friendd addressed to you. i was s fortunate to get to ow and meet toni morrison a number of times.

my first and pererson encounter with her was during my freshman year of colollege when i talalked my way into an advanced seminar on her work. whatat a privilege readiding all l her novels in the order that they were written. it was a condensed approximation of t the wonder and wisdom that had greeted faithful readers over the y years. she freed something in me. that year, m morrison came to cambrididge, massachusetts, to o read from "beloved," then newlwly out. with a standing room only crowd and peopople sitting in the aisles of the giant uninitarian churc, my friends and i literally sat at her feet. arriving a few minutes late, morrison passed right over and in between us. close, so close,e, that c could almost touch the e hem of her g garment. of course, now and always, we all sit at her feet.

a year or so later a 1991, i would geget to meet morrison more personallyly. i went to the movies with h he. anand angela davis, who perhrhaps rememembers, and a good friend of mine who is davis' niece. so whenenever i tell this stor, which i don't do much, but sometimes do people always askeded me, what movie did y'all see? i picture e something profound d political as morrison's writing. "the five heartbeats" i answer. i love that it was thahat film because up close, morrison was earthy y and funn. smoking afterward as we walk the ststreets of oakland. "oh, a bookstore," she said after a few blocks and dashed into ask after something through the glass doors. i could see the employees at the help dedesk looking ququite helpless. answering that they didn'tt have this or thahat title then staring at after her in wonder,

and she simply w walked out and we ambled baback to our car. it was like a visit from a myth that you had only read about. the whole while i was still in colollege, i had my hardcover copy of "beloved" and my b blue messenger babag. i was aching to ask her to sign it. i was too shy, and didn't know how to broach the subject. exactly because morrison was so unpretentious and accepting. i was afraid to break the spell. after we pted d ways and for the rest of the evening and for years after, i felt i hadad missed my chanc. later, over a decade later, i would get that book signed. she was generous as ever. but more than that, over the years, her own work had helped me to further accept my ownwn blak anand writererly self, to realize two of her many truths that, quotote,

"the function, the very seririos function of racism is distraction." and also that "the function of freedom isis to free someone else." she gave us s permission to wok and to wake upup early and stay up late writing, rather than arguing whether we could or should write or exist at all. morrison gave us beautiful language as an assumption of selfhood,, but also as a mirror to look into. i'm thankful that she gave me as a young writer that afternoon toto sit in the welcome dark dreaming alongside her. todaday in my role a as the dirr of the s schomburg center for research and black culultur, my day job, , imagine the luck, is to careretake and c champin black history and culture a house t that tonini morrison helped to craft. in our courtyard at schomburg just down the hihill in harlem is a b bench in honor of morris,

part of the bench by the road projectt by the toni morrison society. this embodies her r wish for a monument to slavery and d to memory. when she says there is notot evn a monument,, no bench by the road where you can think of slavery. and that was one of the reasons she wrote "beloved," she said. now that actual bench is a sub celebratory place to contemplate, to set a spell, as we say, and maybe even to cast a spell. what morrison conjured up in her writing and in her being his -- is magicic of the daily and extraordinary enchantment a black lilife. it is more than anyone who measures the trauma and triumpmph of the enslaved who createtes in her work a living monument to ourur shared past and fafar off fufut. one of words andnd wisdom, silence shattered, and the unsayable named made legible.

she's a friend to our minds. i want to end with a poem by morrison. one she wrote in her work titled "five poems" called "i am not seaworthy." it is a work of f musicc and mystery, of words that sing. "i am not seaworthy. lolook how t the fish mistake my hair for homeme. i had a life, like you. i shouldn't be riding the sea. i am not seaworthy. let me be earth bound; star fixed mixed with sun and smacking air. give me the smile, the magic kiss to trickck little e boy death of my hand.

i am not seaworthy. look how the fish mistake my hair for home." amy: that was poet kevin young, director of the schomburg center for researcrch in black culture. we will be back with more remembrances of toni morrison in a mininute.  [music c break]

amy: saxaxophonist david murray peperforming at the memorial for toni morrison memorial at st. john the divine. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. toni morrison was the first african-american woman to win the nobel prize for literature. she also won a pulitzer prize.

as we continue to bring you excerpts from her memorial, we turn now to david remnick, editor of the e new yorker magazine. >> toni morrison's eaearliest wk did not reach a wide audieienc, not right away. but it's fair to say that with time, thehe world c caught. you could stock a good sized warehouse withth all the prizes and cecertificateses and honorary degrees and medals thatat came her way. but she kept thehe very best oft inin her guest batatoom. twtwo framed documents. one near t the sink anand the other nearby. [laughter] the first was her nobel prize diploma as b bestowed in 1 193 by the swedish academy.. [applause] the sesecond was a letter dated 191998 from the texas department of crimiminal justicice

announcing that her n novel "paradise" had been bannedd from the s states prisisons. "paradisise" the texas aututhors declared, quote, "contains mateterials that any reasonable persoson could d cone as written solely for the purpose of communinicating information desieded to achihiee a breakdkdown of prisons through inmate disruption, such as strikes or riots." think of it. the idea thaa a novel coulcaususe an uprisising. and as toni ononce put i it smi, how powerful is that? porful is onone way to describe totoni morririson. her presence, her talent, her voice were andnd remainn unfoforgettablbly powerfulu. and as much as any artists of her time, she shaped how we thought, how we felt, what wewe read, what we teach, how wewe see e each other,

and d how we see this troubled d country.y. it is, as i say, a very humbling thing to speak about her and her immense legacy. it was certatainly a humbmbling thing to call her on editorial business. i once rang toni to see if she might write something for the magazine. she seememed not to care very mh about my editorial desperation. "i can't honey," she said, "i'm baking a cake." [laughter] now, how long it takes to bake a cake was not something i was prepared to ask her. she knew the score. toni morrison began her life and letters as an editor. she did it to pay the bills, but she also found a w way to bring honor, originality, and political l purpose to that job. she respected d protest, but shshe did not march.

shshe edited. and that was, for r a timeme, her political work. she published a revolutionary almanac called "the blblack boo" the e kind of family scrapbook of 300 years of amemerican black lifefe. and she brought to l life anthologieies of contemporary african amamerican and african literature. work that had helped to shape her and that she wanted you toto re. she brought forwarard the work of gail jojones, tony cade bombarara, angela dav, anand a gifted and original young poet named muhammad ali. editing was a job but it was also her actitivism, her community work.. and yet,t, in thosose days, t's most profound workrk was furtiv. it tooook at home beginning at 4 4:00, 5:00, or 6:00 in the m morning while her younung sons were fast asle.

shshe knew prerecisely what she wananted to do. shshe wanted to wrwrite e about black people foror black people in the vararious lananguages of blackck people.e. and this struck her as no more or less peculiar than tolstoto, who wrotote in rusussian, abouout russnsns, for rurussia. and asas a readeder, she n nod long before most academics, how black pele wewere barelvisiblble in nearly y all of thehe noves of the american renaissance and poe anand hawthorne. she was determinined to assert the prprimacy, the complexity, the specificiti, the e pain, the beauty, and the e endurance of africican americans and not have to go about explaining it all all the time to o anyone el. white readers wewere welcome, justst as french r readers were welcome to totolstoy. but as she tolold her good fried hilton nallsls, my sovereigntyty and authoriry

as a raciazed d person had to be e struck immediately. and so in thosose stolen early morning g hours, she worked and reworked a manuscript about a young giril who wawas consumed wiwith traragic selflf-hatr. and her name, specula breedldlo. i wanteded to read a b book about the most vulnerable person n in society. female, child, b black. and it wasn't arouound. "so i started writing it," she said, and of coursrse ththat was "ththe bluest eye." then came "sula." then came "song of solomomon." and it was at that point that thehe artiststs no longer had to work an office job. she was frfree. toni morrisoson's novelsls aret only about sububjects about rae and its construction, about t familyly and communit, frfriendshipip and love, about t all that is human. they a are alsexquisitely y bui.

they are l like music. intricately structured as an elellington sweet.t. countless passageses featuture ththe crafted chaoaos and the intentional l dissonane and dignity of a theolonious monk solo.. other passages a are as purelely melodic and asas fearless as something y her favorite singeger nina s si. at a celebration of f nina simone's life 15 years ago at c carnegie hall, totoni said of simimone what so many readers have come to say of toni morrison.n. "she s saved our lives. she led us t to believeve wiwith little trueue to lifife evidence to supppport, that we e could do it. fight injustice rather t than suffer it. survive e loss. comeme to terms with b betray. be brutally honest, have regrets minus apology, and not just tasaste the f fulls of life, but d drink it t dow"

toni morrison was alalso an invnvaluable e thker.r. her capacity to see ththis couny for whwhatt t is to see e our t anand worst political actors for who they are was uncanny. just after election day in 2016, the editors of the new yorker called on a number of writers and thinkers, among others, to make sense of the inexplicable. it w was not inexpxplicable to toni morrison. this time, thank goodness, she was not baking a cake. she e i mailed back regarding the future. "i am intellectually weaponized." thenen she wrote thihis about the elecection of donald trump. "so scary are the consequences of a collapse of whitete privile that many,y, many amamericans e flococked to a political platfom thatat supports and d translates violelence againsnst the defenseleless as s strength.

these pepeople are not so much angry as terrified with the kind of terror thatat makes knees tremble." as an editor as a thinkeker, and thenen as a novelist, toni morrison rerefused to allw racism t to overcome her.. "racism," she sasaid, "keeps yu from doing your work. it keeps you explaining over and over again your reaeason for being. somemebody says you u have nono language and you spend 20 years proving that youou do. somebody s says yoyour head is not shaped properly, so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. somemebody says that y you hae no art, so you dredge that up. somebody says that you have no kingdoms and you dredge that up. none of it is necessary. there will always be one more thing." toni morrison struggled against the hate and she was fearless.

but she also refused to get lost to lose her sense of mission. she carrieied through on the promise and the mission that she embarked on a half a century ago with "the bluest eye." great nonovelists illuminate worldsds we diy know where theyey explore new w realmsms of experience that hadad been sequestered from the canon. that is great novels either open a door or they turn on the lighghts. toni morrison did it all. she opened the door and she turned on the lights. amy: that wawas new yorker editr david remnick. as we go back now to oprah winfrey, who concluluded the evening celebratioion of toni morris''s life.. >> i would like to close the evening with an excerpt from "song of solomon." i have manany favoritete passas when it comes toto toni's body of f work.. one ththat you just shared, kekevin -- "she is a friend of my mind" from "beloved." i love that. "m"mamma, did you ever love us"

and the mother's response in "sula." but this one from "song ofof solomonon" never fails to inspire awe for me. and for that and so much else, i say thank you to this sisingular, monumental, gallant writer. "he had come out of nowhere, as ignorant as a hammer and broke as a convict, with nothing -- nothing -- but free papers, a bible, and a pretty black-haired wife. and in one year, he'd leaseded 10 acacres. the next, 10 more. 16 years latater, he had onene of the best farms in montour county.

a farm that colored their lives like a paintbrush and spspoke toto them like a se. 'you see? you see? the farm said to them. see? see what you can do? yoyou see? never mind you can't tell one letter from another, never mimind you b born a sla, never mind you lose your name, never mind your daddy dead, never mind nothing. here, this here, is what a man can do if he puts his mind to it and his backck in it.. stop s sniveling, it said. stop pickin' round the edges of the world. take advantage.

and if you c can't take advanta, take disadvantage. we live here. we livive herere! on t this planet, t this natio, inin this county.. can't you see that? can't you see! we got a home right here in this rock! don't you see? we got a home in this rock. and if i got a home, you got one too! so grab it. grab this land! take this land! hold this land, my brothers. ain't nobody cryin' in my home. i want youou to take t this la, make it,t, my brotothers, shake, squeueeze it, turn it, twist it, beatat it, kick it,

kiss it,t, whip it, stomp it, dig it, plow it, seed it, reap it, rent it, buy it, selell it, own it, build it, multiply it anand pass it on. you hear me? do you heaear me? pass it on!" thank you. amy: oprah winfrey, angela davis, edwidge danticat, and other writers, musicians, and editors remembering the ground-breaking author toni morrison at her memorial at the cathedral of st. john the divine in new york in november. to see my interview with three remarkable writers who knew toni morrison well, angela davis, sonia sanchez and nikki giovanni, visit t our websitite at d democracynonow.org. democracy now! is lookining for feedback from peopople who appreciate the closed c captioning.

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