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src="></picture></span></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK eRggVV grid grid-margs grid-ems-0 SplScreenContentHearGrid-kFpOdh fLkIyA"><div class="GridItem-buujkM kHPPIF grid--em"><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn SplScreenContentHearCaptn-iOfEOv ckLUKG"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Morrison 1970, the year that her tellectually expansive, spirually knowg first novel, “The Blut Eye,” was published.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Photograph om Chter Higgs Archive</span></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" 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class="IameEmbedWrapper-sc-dRedg cjyRVU iame-embed"><div data-ttid="IameEmbedContaer" class="IameEmbedContaer-hptgUZ fXVBaX"><div class="IameEmbedAspectRatWrapper-hFVJps BKpgQ"><iame class="IameEmbedContent-cMdiev csnuAY IameEmbedContent lazyload" height="90" width="100%" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-orig allow-popups" tle="Embedd Frame" data-src=" allowfullscreen="" allow="toplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-wre; toplay; fullscreen; picture--picture"></iame></div></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Before closg the book on that town and those people, the thor has pse for a few fal imag and thoughts amed by regret, shame, and horror. The book? Toni Morrison’s début novel, “The Blut Eye,” which turns fifty this year. As the story ends, one of s protagonists, the blighted Pela Breedlove, has been more or ls abandoned by the townspeople, who have treated her wh srn for most of her life; now she’s left to wanr the streets madns:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>The damage done was total. She spent her days, her tendril sap-green days, walkg up and down, up and down, her head jerkg to the beat of a dmmer so distant only she uld hear. Elbows bent, hands on her shoulrs, she flailed her arms like a bird an eternal, grotquely futile effort to fly. Beatg the air, a wged but ground bird, tent on the blue void uld not reach—uld not even see—but which filled the valley of the md.</p></div></blockquote><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">Spectacular even alongsi other early novels bathed the blood of gothic dread—William Flkner’s “As I Lay Dyg” (1930), say, or Flannery O’Connor’s “Wise Blood” or Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” (both published 1952)—Morrison’s book cut a new path through the Amerin lerary landspe by placg young black girls at the center of the story.</p><p class="paywall">Like all the prcipal characters “The Blut Eye,” Pela liv Lora, Oh, where Morrison, who died last Augt, was born 1931. When we meet Pela, she is eleven years old but already ancient wh sorrow. Her only pe om the emotnal abe that her fay and her classmat heap on her is to dream. And the dream is this: that someone—God, perhaps—will grant her the gift of blue ey. The kd of blue ey Pela has seen pictur of the movie star Shirley Temple. The kd of blue ey that she imag lightg up the face of the girl on the wrapper of her favore ndi, Mary Jan. Pela feels, or the world has ma her feel, that if she had blue ey she would, at last, be ee—ee om her unfivable blackns, om what her muny labelled ugls long before she uld look a mirror and terme for herself who and what she was. Not that she ever looks a mirror. She knows what she’d fd there: judgment of her blackns, her femalens, the formg language that has distorted the reflectn of her face. Eventually, Pela do acquire, or believ she acquir, blue ey. But those harrowg fal imag, Cldia MacTeer, Morrison’s spired ne-year-old narrator, se what Pela nnot, what her madns, the rult of all that rejectn, looks like to the rt of the town: “Grown people looked away; children, those who were not ightened by her, lghed outright.”</p><p class="paywall">In this short, tellectually expansive, emotnally qutng, and spirually knowg book, the act of lookg—and seeg—is scribed aga and aga. One example of many: Peerg through a wdow their fay home, Cldia and her olr sister, Frieda, tch a first glimpse of sex. A beloved boarr is nsortg wh a notor prostute. What n mean, him suckg on that woman’s fgers? Is that love? Or is what a man do to, and not wh, a female? Another example: When Pela go to buy some of her treasured Mary Jan, the whe shopkeeper se her but n’t fix his attentn on her; nothg his experience has prepared him to regnize a ltle black girl as an enty.</p><p class="paywall">Dpe all this lookg, few people, asi om Cldia, bear wns to much. To do so would be to thk crilly about the society that formed them and be moved to effect change. Instead, there’s a great al of nmnatn and parochial disapproval. And ’s mostly aimed at black women—pecially those mothers who don’t keep their home or their children clean. Cleanls, of urse, is next to godls, and who would want to m the double s of beg black <em>and</em> dirty? Pela’s very prence exacerbat some of the other characters’ not so buried feelgs about their own race and poverty—liabili that ph the Ohans apart, rather than une them: no one wants to be nonted wh her own spair, pecially when ’s reflected the ey of another spairg person. And the tth is, by the time we leave Pela, peckg at the waste on the margs of the world, we, too, may feel a measure of relief at no longer havg to see what Morrison se, her profound and unrelentg visn of what life n do to the forsaken.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Morrison said that she wrote “The Blut Eye” bee she wanted to read . She began the book 1965, when she was thirty-four years old. She had majored English at Howard Universy, after which she did her M.A. at Cornell. (Her this, which she scribed as “shaky,” was about suici as a theme the work of Virgia Woolf and William Flkner.) Morrison went on to teach at Texas Southern Universy, and then at Howard, D.C., where she joed a wrers’ group and worked on a short story about a ltle black girl who wanted blue ey. The character was based on a girl she’d known growg up Oh, who’d wanted those ey and cid that God didn’t exist when He didn’t give them to her. Morrison put the draft a drawer and got on wh the bs of livg. In 1958, she married the Jamain archect Harold Morrison; seven years later, the uple was divorced, and Toni was by herself, supportg two young boys and workg as an edor at L. W. Sger, a textbook pany Syrace, New York. Durg an argument, a neighbor lled Morrison a tramp ont of her children. Morrison filed a two-hundred-thoand-dollar lawsu, which she later dropped. She fought to protect herself, but how do you protect yourself om isolatn or lonels?</p><p class="paywall">Lonels and hurt are often an artist’s first tools, and Morrison put hers to work by rememberg and wrg about the world she’d e om: the funk of poverty as well as s flowers, the ghost stori that her father, a welr and a Jack-of-all-tras, told his children. In a way, “The Blut Eye” builds on those tal and honors the years when, whout knowg , Morrison was preparg to bee an artist. Set near the start of the Send World War, before postwar prospery changed Lora, the book is narrated by Cldia, a feisty child, but the tone is elegiac, sce a lot of the novel is driven by memory and the stori that shape . Before the narrative begs, Morrison giv the cx of the tale a sort of preface:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p><em>Quiet as ’s kept, there were no marigolds the fall of 1941. We thought, at the time, that was bee Pela was havg her father’s baby that the marigolds did not grow. . . . It was a long time before my sister and I admted to ourselv that no green was gog to sprg om our seeds. Once we knew, our guilt was relieved only by fights and mutual accatns about who was to blame. . . . It never occurred to eher of that the earth self might have been unyieldg. We had dropped our seeds our own ltle plot of black dirt jt as Pela’s father had dropped his seeds his own plot of black dirt. Our nocence and fah were no more productive than his lt or spair. What is clear now is that of all of that hope, fear, lt, love, and grief, nothg remas but Pela and the unyieldg earth. . . . The seeds shriveled and died; her baby too. There is really nothg more to say—except why. But sce</em> why <em>is difficult to handle, one mt take refuge </em> how.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">By dispensg wh narrative spense up ont, Morrison the mornist focs our attentn on character, on how the stori we tell about and to one another often <em>are</em> the story. We first meet Cldia and Frieda when a whe neighbor tnts them, and we are shown that whens has no erotic pull for Cldia; she has no tert beg filed or overtaken by . Given whe dolls for Christmas, she stroys them. But, she says, “The dismemberment of the dolls was not the te horror. The tly horrifyg thg was the transference of the same impuls to ltle whe girls. The difference wh which I uld have axed them was shaken only by my sire to do so.” Cldia has already learned to hate; she knows that the world don’t admire and validate her the way do whe girls, and she pensat for her vulnerabily by fightg for attentn and rpect.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img 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10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Pela has no fight her. (To see her name and read her story is to be remd of Peola, another girl of lor who is tormented by the qutn and the realy of race, Fannie Hurst’s 1933 novel “Imatn of Life.”) But, to be fair, Pela to Cldia’s fay unr humblg circumstanc: the unty plac her there bee she and the other Breedlov—her father, Cholly, who works at the lol plant; her mother, Polly, who works as a domtic; and her olr brother, Sammy—have no home. Cholly, addn to burng his hoe down, went “upsi his wife’s head, and everybody, as a rult, was outdoors.” (“There is a difference between beg put <em>out</em> and beg put out<em>doors</em>,” Morrison wr, one of the book’s fabulo clarifyg paragraphs. “If you are put out, you go somewhere else; if you are outdoors, there is no place to go. . . . Outdoors was the end of somethg, an irrevoble, physil fact, fg and plementg our metaphysil ndn.”) At Cldia’s, Pela falls love wh an image of a blue-eyed Shirley Temple on a cup, and orr to peer at as much as possible she drks three quarts of k, which angers Cldia’s mother. Ttg chary’s patience n get you put outdoors, too.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="5ur36"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="helebg"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Eventually, the Breedlov are rned a storeont. But how n you be rned if you’ve never really been together? The three women who live above the Breedlov, prostut named Cha, Poland, and Miss Marie, have formed a kd of fay. Unlike the rt of town, the prostut do not spise Pela, so she viss wh them, and Morrison’s fantastic ear for dialogue is given ee re; she revels how women speak, not only to one another but to themselv:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>“Hi, dumpl’. Where your socks?” Marie seldom lled Pela the same thg twice, but variably her ephets were fond on chosen om men and dish that were forever uppermost her md.</p><p>“Hello, Miss Marie. Hello, Miss Cha. Hello, Miss Poland.”</p><p>“You heard me. Where your socks? You as barelegged as a yard dog.”</p><p>“I uldn’t fd any.”</p><p>“Couldn’t fd any? Mt be someth’ your hoe that lov socks.”</p><p>Cha chuckled. Whenever somethg was missg, Marie attributed s disappearance to “somethg the hoe that loved .” “There is someth’ this hoe that lov brassier,” she would say wh alarm. . . .</p><p>“How e you got so many boyiends, Miss Marie?”</p><p>“<em>Boy</em>iends? <em>Boy</em>iends? Chtl’, I a’t seen a <em>boy</em> sce neteen and twenty-seven.” . . .</p><p>Pela fgered the ge of a srf that lay on the back of a sofa. “I never seen nobody wh as many boyiends as you got, Miss Marie. How e they all love you?”</p><p>Marie opened a bottle of root beer. “What else they gone do? They know I’m rich and good-look’. They wants to put their to my curly hair, and get at my money.”</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">The accuracy of Morrison’s dialogue n renr you a child aga, eavdroppg on those thrillg ladi, whose talk feels like a lic tease, a promise of warmth and attentn. Will the women love Pela—and stay adults the procs, which is to say, give her the five mut of nocence and fort that a black girl of her class is allowed Lora? Although Pela is ntually robbed of her nocence, she holds on to the scraps of her dreams wh a steadfastns that breaks the heart. Her upstairs neighbors are another aspect of her hope. She lov to listen to the women’s stori bee, spe the mands of their work, they are ee: ee to love whomever and spend their money however they like. Later the nversatn, Morrison reveals what the prostut keep om Pela: how life n break you down. Pela asks Marie if she had children wh the man she loved, and Marie answers, “Yeah. Yeah. We had some.” Morrison ntu, “Marie fidgeted. She pulled a bobby p om her hair and began to pick her teeth. That meant she didn’t want to talk anymore.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Aga and aga, Morrison asks what happens to the children. Where are Marie’s kids? And what do do to Pela to see the fur and grievg Polly Breedlove, who works for a whe fay, extend more tenrns to her whe charge than she ever has to her own children? To tell Polly’s story, Morrison’s novel expands like an acrdn. The mic is mournful, and we hear Polly’s gripg monologu about how she me to be wh Cholly, who, as a baby, was abandoned on a pile of trash by his mother. Polly met him after her fay moved om Alabama to Kentucky as part of the Great Migratn. Once married, she and Cholly crossed the river to Oh, where Polly went to work for a mean whe woman. “Look like workg for that woman and fightg Cholly was all I did. Tirome. But I holt on to my jobs.” Like her dghter, Polly fell love wh what she was not—the whe imag she saw flickerg on a movie screen:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p><em>The onlit time I be happy seem like was when I was the picture show. . . . [T]he screen would light up, and I’d move right on them pictur. Whe men takg such good re of they women, and they all drsed up big clean ho wh the bathtubs right the same room wh the toilet. Them pictur gave me a lot of pleasure, but ma g home hard, and lookg at Cholly hard. I don’t know. I ’member one time I went to see Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. I fixed my hair up like I’d seen hers on a magaze. A part on the si, wh one ltle curl on my forehead. It looked jt like her. . . . I got up to get me some ndy. I was stg back my seat, and I taken a big be of that ndy, and pulled a tooth right out of my mouth. I uld of cried. . . . There I was, five months pregnant, tryg to look like Jean Harlow, and a ont tooth gone. Everythg went then. Look like I jt didn’t re no more after that. I let my hair go back, plaed up, and settled down to jt beg ugly.</em></p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">When Pela is born, Polly wants to love her, but the end she n’t. “I knowed she was ugly,” she says. “Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly.” Black, poor, female, ugly: one giv birth to what one feels onelf to be. And other black women don’t help, pecially if they’re like Geralde, a mor character, who’s tryg to mata orr and th keep dirts, blackns, and chaos out of her life. One day, Geralde’s son, Junr, nvc Pela to e to his hoe, where he plays a terrible trick on her volvg a t. Geralde arriv and puts an end to the mayhem, but her disgt bubbl up like vom when she looks at Pela, who, she feels, is surely more to blame than her son:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>She had seen this ltle girl all of her life. Hangg out of wdows over saloons Mobile, crawlg over the porch of shotgun ho on the edge of town, stg b statns holdg paper bags and cryg to mothers who kept sayg “Shet up!” Hair unbed, drs fallg apart, sho untied and ked wh dirt. They had stared at her wh great unprehendg ey. Ey that qutned nothg and asked everythg. . . . The end of the world lay their ey, and the begng, and all the waste between.</p></div></blockquote><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">We belong as much to the thgs we throw away as to the thgs we keep. Pela is shunned by Cholly and Polly and Geralde and nearly every other person she to ntact wh, but that don’t mean they n shake her, part bee they n’t shake themselv: she embodi their pa and anguish and dispts their dreams, no matter how flimsy they may be. And, as horrible as is, Cholly’s abe of his dghter is an attempt for him to love <em>someone</em>. What he knows about love is rmed by abandonment and ntempt. Like Pela, he grew up a world where love was not only largely absent; was an emotn to be spised. By extendg his stunted unrstandg—vlently, selfishly—to his powerls dghter, he acts out one of the few ways available to him. But, a life full of vlatns, ’s the last straw, and Pela folds on herself. We listen, at the end of the book, as she talks wh the only person she has left: her blue-eyed self.</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p><em>How many tim a mute are you gog to look si that old thg?</em></p><p>I didn’t look a long time.</p><p><em>You did too—</em></p><p>So what? I n look if I want to. . . .</p><p><em>They aren’t gog anywhere.</em></p><p>I know . I jt like to look. . . .</p><p><em>I’d jt like to do somethg else bis watch you stare that mirror.</em></p><p>You’re jt jealo.</p><p><em>I am not.</em></p><p>You are. You wish you had them.</p><p><em>Ha. What would I look like wh blue ey?</em></p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">I remember fishg that sectn of the novel, at age ten or eleven, and feelg the sharp chill and awfulns of beg spl two. What did mean to not be a “whole” person? Part of Morrison’s geni had to do wh knowg that our cracked selv are a maniftatn of a sick society, the ailg body of Ameri, whose racial malaise keeps producg Pelas. You n fd her everywhere. She’s the dark-skned woman tryg to lighten her plexn wh bleachg creams; she’s the woman who unrgo surgery to th her lips or her nose; she’s the girl who wears lored ntact lens so that the world n see her differently.</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">When you’re a kid, a black- or brown- or yellow- or red-skned kid, most of the time you don’t start the morng thkg about how racism will your day. What you want to know is who will love you, and what surpris that love will brg you that day. It’s the world that brgs hate to your ont door, and ’s hate that mak you hi who you are. As a kid, I rpond viscerally to “The Blut Eye,” for a number of reasons, startg wh the book jacket. Morrison, the photograph on the back ver, looked like the kd of person my fay might have known, and if she was one of that meant that one of my four betiful olr sisters uld, perhaps, wre a book, too.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="j64rnu"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Now I n see that my hope for my sisters was a way of havg hope for myself, hope that I might bee the artist I wanted to be. I held on to every b of hope I uld fd. I felt Pela’s prediment the p of my stomach not bee folks thought I was ugly but bee I knew that, my small, workg-class Wt Indian muny Brooklyn, my sexualy was nsired ugly. My black world then (and, to be ank, hasn’t changed much) fed self by the l of heterosexualy, and one of the few thgs s habants uld agree on was how spirually abhorrent gay people were—at bt, objects of risn. I felt as trapped Brooklyn as Pela did Lora. I didn’t have a dream of blue ey, but I did dream of a world full of culture and artists to which I would one day belong, if, like Toni Morrison, I wrote books. I would try to wre a perfect book, like Morrison’s first novel, but my versn the character of Soaphead Church—a celibate gay Wt Indian who Pela believ has njured up her blue ey—wouldn’t be yet another maniftatn of black Amerin prejudice agast Wt Indian difference. Instead, he would fall love, and maybe prosper, and not live his life as an outsir. In short, I would try to overturn what the society “The Blut Eye” said lay store for me: a kd of madns. This unrstandg, of urse, took many years to form, bee I didn’t know back then that gay men uld fd ways to love one another, let alone themselv. I didn’t grow up at a time when you talked about the problem of not seeg yourself books or of “negative” portrayals; you hunted and dug for the characters and metaphors that mattered to you, and that was the fun—and the reward—of readg and lookg at pictur.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="A tradnal photo of a man's fay taken om the waistup is acpanied by a photo of their lower bodi which is..." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn RponsiveCartoonCred-bKlQqO faLAFb rponsive-rtoon__cred"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT bmQtfn ptn__cred">Cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div 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BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc iOlxjf alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Morrison was thirty-ne years old when she published “The Blut Eye.” Although she claimed a 1981 terview wh Charl Ruas, “I never wanted to grow up to be a wrer, I jt wanted to grow up to be an adult,” is the work of a mature artist who has tired of wag for someone else to exprs her views. Meanwhile, Morrison the edor was also gag strength. By the time “The Blut Eye” me out, she had been an edor of poetry, fictn, and nonfictn at Random Hoe for nearly three years. Her lleagu didn’t know she was a burgeong novelist, bee she didn’t tell them. “They weren’t payg me for that,” she once said. Eventually, a -worker spotted a py of “The Blut Eye,” and Morrison’s subsequent novels were published by Knopf, a Random Hoe imprt.</p><p class="paywall">Like Morrison’s wrg, her edg had a very particular goal: to offer rears stori about blacks, women, and other margalized characters which hadn’t been told before. This sire—this need—seems to have been wh Morrison sce she was a stunt at Howard. In a 2019 documentary about her, “The Piec I Am,” Morrison rells that as a stunt she wanted to wre about the black characters Shakpeare’s plays, but her profsor was “outraged” at the ia. As an edor, she chose to brg those black stori to the fore. Now ’s astonishg to look back at the range of her projects: a book on Southern cuise; a history of the Cotton Club; fictn by Gayl Jon and Toni Ca Bambara; poems by Lucille Clifton and by Henry Dumas, who was killed at thirty-three by a New York Cy subway p; the tobgraphy of Angela Davis; and, 1974, the historic anthology “The Black Book,” which was reissued December.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">“The Black Book” was tend, like “The Blut Eye,” to bat the “Black is betiful” jgoism of the time, and to show real black liv om the ghastly slave ships of the sixteen-hundreds to Ameri the twentieth century. After she met Middleton (Spike) Harris, a llector of black ephemera, who troduced her to other llectors—among them Roger Furman and Morris Levt—Morrison got to work wh a signer, Jack Ribik, puttg together a kd of scrapbook of black Amerin history and life. She jettisoned the ia of havg text domate the llectn, for fear that would give too much of an iologil sp.</p><p class="paywall">“I am not sure what the project meant to the thors,” she wrote a 1974 say, “but for me was like growg up black one more time.” It’s easy to glean what she meant by that. Morrison, like many black Amerins of her generatn, had e of age wh the ia that black achievement—as well as the hard tim—formed a kd of lore, an oral history that was passed down wh pri. In the same say, Morrison wrote:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>The pot is not to soak some warm bath of nostalgia about the good old days—<em>there were none!</em>—but to regnize and rcue those quali of ristance, excellence and tegry that were so much a part of our past and so eful to and to the generatns of blacks now growg up. . . . To create somethg that might last, that would bear wns to the qualy and variety of black life before beme the topic of every Ph.D. dissertatn and the fol pot of all the mdlsns that seems to have joed the smog of California’s movie world. Whatever that “somethg” was, would have to be hont, would have to be renred through our own llective nscns. It would have to assume that we were still tough, and that our egos were not threads of jelly nstant need of glue.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">“Nothg uld have terfered wh my puttg this book together,” Morrison said, an terview the <em>Tim</em> 1974. “I was aaid that young people would e to believe that black history began 1964 or that there was slavery, there was a gap, and then there was 1964.” In “The Black Book,” which she worked on for a feverish eighteen-month perd, Morrison wanted to provi visible evince of where blackns had been and where was gog. She clud documents—a patent showg that William B. Purvis had vented the founta pen, for stance—and photographs, among them one of Lena Horne bathg her drive and signifince, and one of the black wboy Nat Love. There were scriptns of voodoo charms; a full-lor ad showg a black baby a whe p and gown, advertisg Sunlight Soap; pictur of cloth ma by slav; and another patent, this one for Norbert Rillix’s “improvement sugar-makg.” There were l of poetry by Langston Hugh and by Henry Dumas, whom she nsired one of the most talented of her thors. There were imag of black men beg burned or lynched, and a clippg about Margaret Garner, a naway slave who killed one of her children so that she would not grow up slavery—a story that hnted Morrison and spired her 1987 novel, “Beloved,” another tale of nocence lost and of black women alone the world together. You n also fd “The Black Book” other sourc of spiratn for Morrison the novelist. There is an excerpt om Gwendolyn Brooks’s profound poem about abortn, “The Mother”—“Believe me, I loved you all. / Believe me, I knew you, though fatly, and I loved, I loved you / All”—which brgs to md Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” (1977) and the extraordary speech that the healer Pilate livers near the end of her life about wishg she had known more people so that she uld have loved them. Wh “The Black Book,” which would be nomated for a Natnal Book Award, the edor was also feedg the creator. (As wh all great books, one wants “The Black Book” to be all thgs for all people, and yet the llectn is void of any story or image of an out gay person—there is no mentn of Gladys Bentley, for stance, or Bce Nugent, let alone of Jam Baldw or Audre Lor. Jt as Morrison was aaid that young people might thk black history jumped om slavery to the civil-rights era, a young queer kid today may wonr, leafg through the reprt, if black gayns has been liberately erased or “jt” fotten.)</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="sj4wcwt"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="mg46v"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">When the book was published, Margo Jefferson, then a cric at <em>Newsweek</em>, wrote, “As a young girl I was tght that black surgeon Daniel Hale Williams had performed the first succsful heart operatn; that blacks were shipbuilrs, ventors and landowners, and that I was never to sg a song that ed the words darky, on or crow. ‘You need this for yourself,’ utned my father; ‘and for ammunn,’ add my mother. ‘The Black Book’ is nfirmatn and ammunn.” Morrison weled and enuraged dialogu between black crics and artists. “Whe people n’t do for ,” she said a 1974 terview. “That’s our rponsibily and some way we have to do . I say you mt always tell the tth. And I tell you that we are not weak people and we n stand .” But first you need ser and serly good work to spire the disurse. For me, “The Blut Eye” and “The Black Book,” works of the hight qualy, were tangible and galvanizg evince that to be an artist meant armg yourself wh the tth—about where you me om and where you hope to go—and that hypocrisy was the enemy of art. Morrison showed me what was possible.</p><p class="paywall">In an unpublished bgraphil statement that she wrote around the time that she was promotg “The Black Book” and her send novel, “Sula” (1973), she offered a wdow to her sensibily, which was driven by loss, effort, survival, and not turng away om any of . Her relativ on both sis were migrants om the South, she explaed, who had suffered and persevered. She went on:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Even before I knew what they had done to stay alive, to raise their children, and to be better than their tractors—even before that, their ey imprsed me. They were like wells of stacked mirrors—each wh a pth and reactn of s own. . . . The clost I n e to scribg is the look of people who have lived plac where there are great distanc to view. Dert people, or people who live on savannahs or mounta tops—they have the look I remember my parents and their relativ. Their ey were terrible, ma bearable only by the equency of their lghter. ♦</p></div></blockquote></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="ga4bor"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2020/02/03" data-reactroot="">Febary 3, 2020</a>, issue, wh the headle “Seeg Thgs.”</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/hilton-als"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/hilton-als">Hilton Als</a>, a staff wrer at The New Yorker, won the 2017 Pulzer Prize for cricism. He published “<a href=">My Pup</a>,” November, 2022.</div><div class="ContributorBFooter-brqDlv ezUmSv"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div data-ttid="ContentFooterBottom" class="ContentFooterBottom-jwWZfC kcbyiW"><div class="ContentFooterNewsletterContentWrapper-bmjtna kixtae"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper-fCqqkN jKSBhE newsletter-subscribe-form ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper-fpMElW eglIBL"><h3 class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDangeroHed-kRwWjt feDzQf newsletter-subscribe-form__hed ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf">Weekly</h3><div class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDek-kXonvc grEaES newsletter-subscribe-form__k">Your gui to the latt magaze and our biggt stori of the week, pl highlights om podsts, humor, and more.</div></div><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper-keARJE hVWbzr"><form class="form-wh-validatn NewsletterSubscribeFormValidatn-iCYa-Dt dweEln" id="newsletter" name="newsletter" novalidate="" method="POST"><span class="TextFieldWrapper-Pzdqp hNhevp text-field" data-ttid="TextFieldWrapper__email"><label class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TextFieldLabel-klrYvg iUEiRd stdEm fvoOvz text-field__label text-field__label--sgle-le" for="newsletter-text-field-email" data-ttid="TextFieldLabel__email"><div class="TextFieldLabelText-cvvxBl eeDYTb">E-mail addrs</div><div class="TextFieldInputContaer-jcMPhb oFrOs"><put type="email" aria-scribedby="privacy-text" aria-valid="false" id="newsletter-text-field-email" required="" name="email" placeholr="E-mail addrs" class="BaseInput-fAzTdK TextFieldControlInput-eFUxkf eGzzTT lglhcT text-field__ntrol text-field__ntrol--put" data-ttid="TextFieldInput__email"/></div></label><button class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv dwpimO button button--utily TextFieldButton-csBrgY edxbrw" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="subm"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN hzwRuG button__label">Sign up</span></button></span><div id="privacy-text" tabx="-1" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDisclaimer-bTVtiV bsgLJZ"><span><p>By signg up, you agree to our <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">User Agreement</a> and <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement</a>. 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Now that she’s a profsnal food wrer, that shame is fally meltg away.</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz ktcjQn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Briefly Noted" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Briefly Noted</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">“Thunrclap,” “Grand Deln,” “Fire Rh,” and “Nth Buildg.”</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO 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class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Briefly Noted</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">“The Lost Sons of Omaha,” “Natural Light,” “A History of Burng,” and “The Book of Eve.”</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz ktcjQn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Tsa Hadley on Marriage’s Metamorphos" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">This Week Fictn</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Tsa Hadley on Marriage’s Metamorphos</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">The thor discs “The Maths Tutor,” her story om the latt issue of the magaze.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ 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toni morrison gay

Contents:

TONI MORRISON, ETHICS, AND SOCIAL JTICE: A ROBERT M. GAY MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM

She had probably seen this tenncy a number of the women wrers she nurtured over the years, and some of the gay black male artists, such as Bill Gunn, whom she had loved, too. Gay Memorial Lectur event is hosted by the Simmons Universy Department of English, the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humani, and the Office of Unrgraduate Rearch and Fellowships.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

” The pneerg gay novelist Gore Vidal rells how the publitn of his novel “The Cy and the Pillar” 1948 was met wh “shock and disbelief. Movg beyond Morrison's reprentatn of ghosts as the fotten or occlud past, Juda Bent unvers how Morrison imag the spectral sphere as always already queer, a provotn and challenge to heteronormativy—wh the ghost appearg as an active participant disptns of pulsory heterosexualy, as a figure embodyg closet sir, or as a disembodied emanatn that unterpots homophobia. From The Blut Eye to Home, Morrison's novels have clud many queer ghosts that challenge our most cherished nceptns of love and speak to cultural anxieti about black sexuali, gay marriage, AIDS, lbian visibily, and transgenr inti.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThere is a blossomg of black women wrers who are followg her footsteps and makg their own Greenfield-SanrsRoxane GayMs. Gay is a ntributg Opn Morrison was unparalleled.

PASSAGES: Former OPALGA+ board member, edor JoAnn Ziebarth2023-08-10Former Oak Park Area Lbian and Gay Associatn (OPALGA+) board member and edor JoAnn Ziebarth died July 18 after sufferg a bad fall. Acrdg to IMDb, Friedk's reer was extremely varied, as he directed everythg om the classic horror film The Exorcist to the fluential 1969 gay film The... SHOWBIZ Rocker out, Billie Eilish, Le Evans, 'Hoewiv, ' 'Masculy' book2023-06-30Josh Kiszka, ontman for the Grammy-wng rock band Greta Van Fleet, me out as gay an Instagram post, acrdg to Instct Magaze.

ROXANE GAY ON MASTERCLASS, WHERE TO BEG READG TONI MORRISON, AND MORE

Gay and Lbian News and Feature Publitn) will be treated. (Chigo GLBT Nightlife News) and Wdy Cy Tim (a Chigo Gay,. (a Chigo Gay, Lbian, Bisexual and Transgenr News and Feature.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* TONI MORRISON GAY

Author Toni Morrison Has Died - Towleroad Gay News .

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