Continuing our tour of Ohio, Namwali Serpell 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 maturation, as Nel and Sula hover on the threshold between the girls they have been and the women they are actively becoming.
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From the podcast:
Dionne Custer Edwards: Jesmyn Ward talks about—and many of us sort of have this experience of reading Morrison’s work in undergrad, in college, and being young, also becoming—and Ward speaks so specifically and transparently about grief and loss in this introduction, and how to go back and re-read Sula after having lived: that’s a whole other thing.
Namwali Serpell: Yeah.
