TONI MORRISON: The Pieces I Am

Saturday, February 19 at 2pm at the Monroe County Public Library

This special screening is co-presented by Friends of the Library is part of the 2022 Power of Words initiative bringing author Jacqueline Woodson to Bloomington for a talk at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on February 5 and the Marian Armstrong Exhibit, Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards on display at the Downtown Library February 1–March 20.

With the peerless style and rich perspective on Black America she brought to such acclaimed novels as Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison earned a reputation as one of America’s greatest living writers.

She wrote her books from a vital, underrepresented point of view. Inspired to write because no one took a “little black girl” seriously, Morrison was one of the few who wrote for an African American audience, and she understood the way language could operate as an oppressive or uplifting force—she refused to let her words be marginalized. After years of fighting to be heard, Morrison was awarded a Nobel Prize for her writing, and her novels are now taught in schools around the world.

Through a trove of archival material, evocative works of contemporary art, and interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, and Morrison herself, we revisit her famed books and learn about the inspiration for her writing. Throughout, Morrison is effortlessly graceful, insightful, and candid, making this intimate, comprehensive portrait of her life and works an exploration of what it means to be a writer whose stories are so deeply intertwined with often-unrealized national truths.

2019 | 120 min

The film is brought alive by the charisma and brilliance of its subject. -NY Times