Andre Holland And Phylicia Rashad Read Toni Morrison at 92Y

Critically-acclaimed actors Andr Holland and Phylicia Rashad visit 92Y's Unterberg Poetry Center on Thursday, May 23 at 7:30 pm for a dramatic reading of Toni Morrison's new book, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations. The actors will read selections of the book curated by Morrison scholar and Columbia University professor Farah Jasmine Griffin, which 92Y has commissioned for the event.

Writing for the New York Times, author James McBride said of Morrison's new book, Close your eyes and make a wish. Wish that one of the most informed, smartest, most successful people in your profession walks into your living room, pulls up a chair and says, 'This is what I've been thinking.'

In The Source of Self-Regard, Morrison takes on a wide range of topics with resonance today the complex history of race relations in the U.S., migration and the notion of borders, feminism and social politics, among many others. She also offers appraisals of renowned writers and artists, such as James Baldwin, William Faulkner and Romare Bearden as well as her own work.

With The Source of Self-Regard, Toni Morrison further cements her reputation as the towering literary figure of our time, said Griffin. Her intellect, like her prose, is original, incisive and illuminating. Hers is a voice we urgently need now more than ever, and I am honored to join these great artists as we bring that voice to the stage of the 92nd Street Y.

Toni Morrison's words ring with clarity, wisdom, compassion, and beauty, said Rashad, the Tony Award-winning actor well known for A Raisin in the Sun, among many other theater and television roles. It is an honor to speak them aloud.

Andr Holland's film and theater credits include Moonlight, High Flying Bird, Selma and August Wilson's Jitney on Broadway.

The May 23 event is one of the highlights of 92Y Poetry Center's 80th-anniversary season and continues a new series of literary performance that began in October 2018 with a presentation of Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America. Since 1939, the Center has presented readings by many of the greatest contemporary writers, including Toni Morrison, who first appeared at 92Y in 1979 and most recently returned in 2015 for a conversation with Farah Jasmine Griffin upon publication of her novel
God Help the Child.

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