Toni Morrison Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Whoopi Goldberg and Zendaya are just some of the stars who appear in Elvis Mitchell’s “Is That Black Enough for You?” Netflix documentary. Mitchell’s doc bows this weekend at the New York Film Festival. Mitchell, a film critic who has written for LA Weekly and The New York Times takes on the role of writer, director and narrator as he traces the history of Black representation in cinema. The documentary examines Black cultural achievement in the 1960s and ’70s and debunks the notion that Black cinema in that period only meant Blaxploitation films.

K.J. Yossman Actor, director and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah has joined the board of Endeavor-backed production company The Story Collective. In the role, Kwei-Armah will bring expertise and mentorship to various projects in development as well as nurturing new ideas to bring to screen.

EXCLUSIVE: MTV Documentary Films is making its Oscar-shortlisted documentary The ABCs of Book Banning free to public library patrons across this country on Saturday, in partnership with streaming platform Projectr.

Moms for Liberty — and a slew of anti-LGBTQ policies generally associated with them — and those running on the “Neighbors United for School Board” slate of candidates, who campaigned in opposition to the previous majority’s “book banning, anti-LGBTQIA+ policies, and ‘culture war’ politics.”Karen Smith and Dr. Miriam Mahmud, the most senior Democratic-backed candidates on the board, were elected president and vice president by 7-2 and 8-1, respectively.

P!nk has announced that she will be giving away 2,000 copies of banned books at her upcoming concerts in Florida.The singer has teamed up with PEN America to distribute copies of Todd Parr’s The Family Book, Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Stacia Deutsch’s Girls Who Code, all books that are currently prohibited from schools and libraries in Florida.Speaking about the collaboration with PEN America in a statement, P!nk said: “Books have held a special joy for me from the time I was a child, and that’s why I am unwilling to stand by and watch while books are banned by schools.”A post shared by P!NK (@pink)She continued: “It’s especially hateful to see authorities take aim at books about race and racism and against LGBTQ authors and those of colour. We have made so many strides toward equality in this country and no one should want to see this progress reversed.”Over 1,400 books have been banned from the state’s public schools and libraries since last year according to the organisation.

A post shared by P!NK (@pink) Pink intends to distribute four specific books during her Florida shows in the cities of Miami and Sunrise. The selected titles are The Family Book by Todd Parr, The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and Girls Who Code by Reshma Saujani.This exciting and rather badass initiative is a collaboration between Pink, PEN America, and Florida bookstore Books & Books.

Aramide Tinubu Literary legend Toni Morrison once called racism a distraction. “It keeps you from doing your work,” she said during a 1975 speech. “It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” Black people must contend with everything from blatant acts of racist terrorism to small microaggressions that filter into our everyday lives.

Toni Morrison wrote, “A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves—a special kind of double.”National Sisters Day, celebrated on the first Sunday in August recognizes that special bond between siblings with sisters both born and found.From the rivalry between Queen Elizabeth I and her sister Mary Queen of Scots to the modern warmth and warfare among the Kardashian-Jenner clan, sister dynamics offer a wealth of intrigue. A source of strength, joy, envy and ire since we as humans first consciously shared a cave floor, the bond of sisters extends not just to blood relatives but to female friendships that feel like family. How we love is informed by myriad circumstances and astrology can help us understand both our love languages and our relationship failings.

Toni Morrison wrote, “A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves—a special kind of double.”National Sisters Day, celebrated on the first Sunday in August recognizes that special bond between siblings with sisters both born and found.From the rivalry between Queen Elizabeth I and her sister Mary Queen of Scots to the modern warmth and warfare among the Kardashian-Jenner clan, sister dynamics offer a wealth of intrigue. A source of strength, joy, envy and ire since we as humans first consciously shared a cave floor, the bond of sisters extends not just to blood relatives but to female friendships that feel like family. How we love is informed by myriad circumstances and astrology can help us understand both our love languages and our relationship failings.

posting an article that details his life and impact. Gottlieb was born April 29, 1931, and was raised in the Manhattan borough of New York City. He graduated from Columbia University in 1952 before attending Cambridge University in the U.K for two years.

J. Kim Murphy Robert Gottlieb, an editor extraordinaire who worked with writers as varied as Toni Morrison, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Robert Caro and Bill Clinton, died Wednesday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 92. Gottlieb’s death was confirmed to the New York Times by his wife, actor Maria Tucci. Working at publishers Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf, Gottlieb’s impressive record of shepherding manuscripts into well-regarded, sometimes bestselling and award-winning works earned him a towering reputation among literary elite. John Cheever, Joseph Heller, Doris Lessing, Chaim Potok and Ray Bradbury were among his clients, along with Katharine Graham, the once publisher of the Washington Post.

Robert Gottlieb, the legendary editor at Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker who helped shape the work of many of the world’s greatest writers over the past six decades, has died, according to Knopf and The New Yorker. He was 92.

Senegalese and French director Ramata-Toulaye Sy is only the second Black woman to make it into Competition in Cannes. Her debut feature, Banel & Adama, which had its debut Saturday, follows in the footsteps of Mati Diop’s 2019 Atlantics.

A Life of One’s Own, a new book by Joanna Biggs, which explores nine female writers – from Mary Wollstonecraft to Toni Morrison – who have had to “begin again”. In the first chapter, Biggs tells us about her heartbreak after she and her husband separated and the way that she looked to writers to guide her in her new life.

Author Judy Blume says she worries about intolerance in the US, following the removal in schools of some of her novels. 

Axios confirmed to Vanity Fair that Montgomery is no longer with the company but did not elaborate. The news website is based in Arlington, Virginia. It was launched in 2017 by former Politico journalists Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz.Perhaps he should have considered being a journalist, not an activist or propagandist.The email sent from the Florida Department of Education Press Office billed the upcoming DeSantis-hosted event as “exposing the diversity equity and inclusion scam in higher education.” DeSantis has previously called his state “where woke goes to die.” A recent ban of more than 80 titles in Martin County schools that included works by Jodi Picoult, James Patterson and Toni Morrison went into effect earlier this month.

Marta Balaga Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman picked up her Career Achievement Award at Zurich Film Festival on Thursday. She also gave another Golden Eye statuette to Robert IJserinkhuijsen, winner of the 10th International Film Music Competition. Portman was this year’s jury president. “She is an exceptional composer, a fine storyteller. She paints feelings with sounds. With her, longing can sound mysterious and sadness can sound like hope,” said artistic director Christian Jungen, celebrating an inspiring career in an industry “long-dominated by men.” “Her compositions are timeless, personal and yet universal,” he added.

Angelique Jackson The documentary “Kaepernick & America,” which examines the remarkable conflict stirred by former NFL star Colin Kaepernick’s sideline protest, will begin streaming on demand on Fri. Sept.

Back to the ranch! The Yellowstone universe keeps expanding and the newest addition will spotlight a different generation of the Dutton family.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO is developing Sula, a limited series based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s novel. The project comes from writer Shannon M. Houston (Station Eleven), who has an overall deal at HBO, and Stephanie Allain’s Homegrown Pictures, under the company’s first-look deal with Warner Bros. Television Group and HBO.

a nationwide book ban sweeping America’s school districts, primarily fueled by conservatives who are targeting books mostly by and about minorities, especially LGBTQ and Black people.Over the last nine months 1145 books have been removed from school classrooms and libraries in 86 school districts, a PEN America report finds. They cover a wide range, including books about Rosa Parks, Dr.

NEW YORK -- Author Zadie Smith is this year's winner of the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, an honor previously given to Toni Morrison, Stephen Sondheim and Margaret Atwood among others.The PEN literary award is presented to “an important writer whose work has drawn a wide audience and who helps us understand the human condition in original and powerful ways.” Smith, 46, the youngest ever recipient of the literary prize, is known for novels “White Teeth” and “NW" and such essay collections as “Changing My Mind” and “Intimations.” She recently contributed the introduction to a stand-alone book edition of Morrison's short story “Recitatif.”“Zadie Smith’s impact cannot be understated," PEN America President Ayad Akhtar said in a statement Friday. “She is not just one of contemporary fiction’s most groundbreaking voices, but also amongst our most insightful critical minds.

NEW YORK -- The poet, activist and educator Sonia Sanchez is this year's winner of the Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement honor started in 1960 and previously given to Robert Frost, Toni Morrison and Stephen Sondheim among others.“I had tears in my eyes as I learned about this award,” Sanchez, 87, said in a statement released Sunday by MacDowell. “When I consider my dear friend, Sister Toni (Morrison), and so many others who have been given this award, I feel so welcomed to be part of that group.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.A Tennessee school board’s recent ban on Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” is the conclusion to a story we’ve already seen. A group of adults, whether it be parents or teachers, finds a book’s content to be so offensive that they call for it to be pulled from shelves, taken off syllabi or even banned entirely from schools.In the case of “Maus” — which details Spiegelman’s father’s experience of the Holocaust — it was “inappropriate language and nudity” that caused a Tennessee school board to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel from its eighth grade curriculum.

NEW YORK -- To much of the world the late Toni Morrison was a novelist, celebrated for such classics as “Beloved,” “Song of Solomon” and “The Bluest Eye.”But the Nobel laureate did not confine herself to one kind of writing.Morrison also completed plays, poems, essays, and short stories, one of which is coming out as a book on Feb. 1.

NEW YORK -- Karen Tei Yamashita, this year's recipient of a National Book Award for literary achievement, is in some ways a departure from previous winners.The National Book Foundation announced Friday that Yamashita has been awarded its medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a prize with a $10,000 cash award.

Angelina Jolie's children made their debut on their mother's Instagram! On Friday, the mom of six shared pics of her kids reading.The first photo is of 16-year-old Zahara Jolie-Pitt reading Toni Morrison's first novel,, which was first published in 1970. In the image, Zahara is smiling at the camera while sporting a septum ring. In the second photo, one of Jolie's kids is reading a book that came out just this year,  by Akala.«End of #summerreading.

Angelina Jolie is spreading her love of books to her kids.

Angelina Jolie recently joined Instagram and in her latest post, she shared some rare new personal photos of her daughters Zahara and Shiloh.

No one quite knew what to expect when Angelina Jolie joined Instagram on Aug. 20, but it looks like she’s willing to share some quiet, private moments from her own life. In her just her fifth posting, Angie shared rare family photos of her two oldest daughters, Zahara, 16, and Shiloh, 15, working on their summer reading lists.

Mom’s little bookworms! Angelina Jolie shared new photos of her kids reading on Friday, September 3.

North Carolina rapper MAVI is the kind of artist that labors over the content and delivery of his music more than most. Back in 2019, he told The FADER about how Toni Morrison's work influenced his own.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the New Jersey Turnpike Authority was going to rename a handful of rest stops after notable people who are from the state.

NEW YORK -- The Library of Congress awarded a lifetime achievement prize to Joy Williams, a fiction writer known for her spare prose and dark and incisive worldview.Williams is this year's recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, an honor previously given to Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo among others.“Her work reveals the strange and unsettling grace just beneath the surface of our lives.

If bon mots were bonbons, Fran Lebowitz would be Willie Wonka.

NEW YORK -- The closing of physical libraries because of the pandemic has slowed but not stopped patrons and others from calling for books to be banned or restricted.On Monday, the American Library Association reported more than 270 challenges to books in 2020, from Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye” to Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird,” compared to 377 the year before.