Namwali Serpell and Saeed Jones on Toni Morrison, “Master of Shade”

From the Podcast, PASSAGES: On Morrison

In the words of drag performer Dorian Corey, shade requires you to “go to the fine point.” To throw shade—to insult your subject, either a text or a person, with maximum flare and make it fun for an audience—you have to pick out extremely precise details, naming the specificities of what you dislike.

Toni Morrison was an exceptionally close reader, and this enabled her to be a master of shade.

At a celebratory event at the end of her tour for On Morrison, Namwali Serpell discusses Morrison’s shade as critical praxis with poet, memoirist, and host of “Vibe Check” Saeed Jones. They read and open up Morrison’s excoriating review of Regina Nadelson’s Who Is Angela Davis?, an unauthorized biography of the young revolutionary. The review was originally published in 1972 in The New York Times.

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