PASSAGES: On Morrison
PASSAGES: On Morrison is a podcast hosted by Namwali Serpell, a novelist, critic, and Harvard professor. The show takes reading on the road, as Serpell joins fellow writers and skilled readers in conversation to pore over excerpts of Toni Morrison's prose. Recorded on book tour for her book ON MORRISON, each episode welcomes listeners into rooms full of readers and discussions of how Morrison made her words sing. The podcast is a celebration of Morrison's extraordinary work and a love letter to reading closely in community.
Episodes
8. Basking in Morrison's Shade with Saeed Jones
In the words of drag performer Dorian Corey, shade requires you to "go to the fine point." To throw shade—to insult your subject, either a text or a person, with maximum flare and make it fun for an audience—you have to pick out extremely precise details, naming the specificities of what you dislike. Toni Morrison was an exceptionally close reader, and this enabled her to be a master of shade. A
7. Feeling in on JAZZ with Cathy Park Hong
Every city has a pulse, a rhythm, a certain way it's touched by light. Continuing on tour for ON MORRISON, Namwali lands in sunny Oakland, California, where she reads Morrison's striking, swinging portrait of Harlem's jazz age with poet and writer Cathy Park Hong. At an event with the Bay Area Book Festival, Namwali and Cathy discuss slant rhymes, slanted grammars, and the slanting light Morrison
6. Dreaming TAR BABY with Angela Flournoy
In the threshold between awake and sleeping, a woman in a yellow dress strolls the aisles of a grocery store. Continuing on tour for ON MORRISON, Namwali Serpell travels to Philadelphia to talk with writer Angela Flournoy about a scene from TAR BABY. Speaking at the Free Library, they trace the novel's invocation of myths and masks, Morrison's paradoxical presentation of stereotypes, and the surre
5. Calling on BELOVED with Vinson Cunningham
BELOVED is a holy space made of words. Across the street from Washington Square Park, in New York City's historic Judson Memorial Church, Namwali Serpell, writer Vinson Cunningham, and our live audience invoke the hauntings of Morrison's most celebrated novel. Reading from BELOVED's final, stunning page, Namwali and Vinson trace how Morrison imbues meaning on the level of syntax and crafts her wor
4. Seeking PARADISE with Kortney Morrow
Toni Morrison didn't want a monument or statue erected in her honor; she wanted a dedicated reading room in her hometown public library, a space that could allow for change and continuous engagement with her work. In this episode, Namwali Serpell visits the Toni Morrison Reading Room in the Lorain Public Library, before heading to a tour event at the CityClub Cleveland to open up a passage from Mo
3. Playing in SULA with Dionne Custer Edwards
Continuing our tour of Ohio, Namwali joins writer and educator Dionne Custer Edwards to discuss ON MORRISON at the Bexley Public Library. They read and open up a passage of Morrison's SULA, a brimming scene of friendship and play between the two central characters, Sula and Nel. Dionne and Namwali explore the innocence of the girls' mirrored play with twigs and grass, but also the undertones of ma
2. Flying into SONG OF SOLOMON with Hanif Abdurraqib
For the launch of Ohio's year-long, state-wide celebration of Toni Morrison, Namwali Serpell flies to Columbus to talk with poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib. With the help of the audience, they read the ending of Morrison's SONG OF SOLOMON and then open up the scene's quiet violence and ambiguous action. The passage leads them to discuss the challenges of adapting Morrison's novels for film, the
1. Opening THE BLUEST EYE with Tracy K. Smith
Namwali Serpell kicks off the tour for her new book ON MORRISON at the First Parish Church in Cambridge, MA, in conversation with poet Tracy K. Smith. Together, they read the opening of THE BLUEST EYE, Toni Morrison's debut novel, and discuss all that the passage emits and erases. They also explore how the cultural treatment of Morrison as a literary icon or monument has obscured a true appreciat
Trailer | PASSAGES: On Morrison
PASSAGES: On Morrison is a podcast that takes reading on the road. At each stop on our tour, Namwali Serpell and fellow writers open up a different passage of Toni Morrison's prose, in front of a live audience. You can purchase the book ON MORRISON by Namwali Serpell through https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752344/on-morrison-by-namwali-serpell/. This podcast is a production of the Rand
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