Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am  Directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Magnolia Pictures documentary 2019 Toni Morrison’s voice as the primary narrator of this kaleidoscopic collage of her life and her work stands out as the featured soloist in a chorus of exceptional voices. Angela Davis, David Carrasco, Farah Griffin, Fran Lebowitz, Hilton Als, Oprah Winfrey, Paula Giddings, Richard Danielpour, Robert Gottlieb, Russell Banks, Sonia Sanchez, and Walter Mosley convey their admiration for her genius literary artistry and her friendship. More than two hours are filled with insights about her family history, creative influences, writing process, dynamic feminism regarding pay equity; snippets of interviews with Dick Cavett and others. Voice cameos, atmospheric music, and a smorgasbord of artwork caption, score, and illustrate the richness of this phenomenal woman’s complexity. From 1993 after the announcement of her Nobel Prize for Literature, there’s a video clip of h...

February is the month for exploit—I mean—celebrating love! Romance fiction does that 24/7/365, which is awesome. What’s NOT awesome? Far too many contemporary hetero romance novels still include scenes similar to the following: Things are getting hot and heavy. Clothes are coming off, then they realize no one has any condoms. He says,” I’m clean.” She says, “Me, too. And I’m on birth control. I’m safe.” (Or “I’m protected.”) My thoughts as a reader: No you’re not! [This author’s confession: I’m a reformed offender in the general category of scientific fact versus fiction regarding medical accuracy in sex scenes. Ex. as in physical evidence of virginity.] Even acknowledging that it’s fiction with expectations of creative license and a reader’s suspension of disbelief doesn’t make any variation on the core message of this factually untrue exchange acceptable this far into the 21st(!) century. Sexual activity involves risks. Safer sex practices* mitigate them. Rates ...