Today, February 18th
Morrison touches on race relations, notions of borders and other topics relevant to today
IT’S TONI MORRISON’S BIRTHDAY (AND THE 92ND ST. Y IS CELEBRATING IT). “This is precisely the time when artists go to work,” wrote Morrison (who died last August at age 88). “There is no time for despair… We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” Having just finished her musical, mystical novel “Jazz” a day ago, her notion of “doing language” is especially resonant to me. To embody, “do” or “be” words seems one of Morrison’s many rare gifts—her novel seemingly alive with emotion, memory and personal history.
Actors André Holland and Phylicia Rashad, who’ll read curated selections from Morrison’s “The Source of Self-Regard”
Those familiar with her work know those gifts extended far beyond fiction (her damning New Yorker essay on white male privilege woke me up to the construct’s institutionalized damage as nothing else has). And fans can savor her intellectual command and curiosity at tonight’s 92 St. Y reading of Morrison’s “The Source of Self-Regard” with André Holland and Phylicia Rashad. The actors will read selections curated by Morrison scholar and Columbia University professor, Farah Jasmine Griffin—touching on topics very relevant to today, including our complex history of race relations, the notion of borders, feminism and social politics. To that list of how societies heal, I would add, “we listen.”
Toni Morrison’s “The Source of Self-Regard” with André Holland and Phylicia Rashad. Tuesday, February 18, 8:00PM, Kaufmann Concert Hall, Tickets from $38. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue (between 91st
& 92nd street); 212.415.5500
The Statue of Liberty being built in Paris
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY “GOT ITS PATENT” ON THIS DAY IN 1879. Or should I say, sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi was awarded a patent for his design! Two years later, the US Ambassador to France, Levi P Morton, was given the honor of driving the first rivet, followed by:
July 4th, 1884: Statue of Liberty is presented to the United States in Paris
August 5th, 1884: Cornerstone for the Statue laid on New York’s Bedloe's Island
June 17, 1885: The Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'
August 11th, 1885: $100,000 raised in U.S. for the Statue’s pedestal
October 28, 1886: Statue of Liberty’s dedication by President Grover Cleveland celebrated by New York City’s first-ever ticker tape parade
October 28, 1936: FDR rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
It “lays out the path for Democrats to save the day… by, like, actually doing democracy." says Booklist
“UN-TRUMPING AMERICA: A PLAN TO MAKE AMERICA A DEMOCRACY AGAIN” IS IN STORES. Dan Pfeiffer (who I love as the co-host of “Pod Save America”) has delivered “a sharp political playbook” on how to take on Trump, McConnell, Fox News, and the rest of the right-wing circus dominating American politics.
With nearly twenty years of experience at the center of Democratic politics (including inside the Obama White House), Pfeiffer dismantles toxic Trumpism and offers a way forward, urging Democrats to embrace bold solutions—from fixing the courts to abolishing the electoral college to eliminating the filibuster–in order to make America more democratic (and Democratic).
It “lays out the path for Democrats to save the day,” says Booklist, “not by beating Republicans at their own (dirty, he convincingly claims) game but by, like, actually doing democracy." For those who believe there’s nothing more important than beating Trump in 2020, it sounds like a must-read.