{"podcast":{"title":"PASSAGES: On Morrison","slug":"passages-on-morrison-7850883","podcast_index_feed_id":7850883,"rss_url":"https://feeds.libsyn.com/618475/rss","website_url":"https://sites.libsyn.com/PASSAGES","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/7/c/2/2/7c22934eb2d8089316c3140a3186d450/SERPELL_OnMorrison_HC_podcastart_3000x3000_1.jpg","author":"Sara McCrea","episode_count":4,"summary":"PASSAGES takes reading on the road. Come along with Namwali Serpell, novelist, critic, and Harvard professor, as she joins fellow writers and skilled readers in conversation to pore over excerpts of Toni Morrison's prose. Recorded on book tour for ON MORRISON—Serpell's electrifying, critical exploration of the author's oeuvre—each episode welcomes listeners into rooms full of readers and discussions of how Morrison made her words sing. This show is the record of a traveling salon, a celebration of Morrison's extraordinary work, and a love letter to reading closely in community. You can purchase ON MORRISON wherever books are sold or through this link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752344/on-morrison-by-namwali-serpell/ PASSAGES: On Morrison is a production of the Random House Publishing Group. Cover art includes \"Toni Morrison as Song of Solomon\" by John Sokol (1981).","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/passages-on-morrison-7850883"},"episode":{"title":"3. Playing in SULA with Dionne Custer Edwards","slug":"3-playing-in-sula-with-dionne-custer-edwards","published_at":"2026-05-28T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/passages-on-morrison-7850883/3-playing-in-sula-with-dionne-custer-edwards","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/passages-on-morrison-7850883","url":"https://2a988e69-f377-4f2d-8d6f-d1eeb255e567.libsyn.com/3-playing-in-sula-with-dionne-custer-edwards","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/2a988e69-f377-4f2d-8d6f-d1eeb255e567/For_Upload_POM_Episode_3.mp3?dest-id=5394360","summary":"Continuing our tour of Ohio, Namwali 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. Here is the passage Dionne reads from Toni Morrison's SULA: \"Sula lifted her head and joined Nel in the grass play. In concert, without ever meeting each other's eyes, they stroked the blades up and down, up and down. Nel found a thick twig and, with her thumbnail, pulled away its bark until it was stripped to a smooth, creamy innocence. Sula looked about and found one too. When both twigs were undressed Nel moved easily to the next stage and began tearing up rooted grass to make a bare spot of earth. When a generous clearing was made, Sula traced intricate patterns in it with her twig. At first Nel was content to do the same. But soon she grew impatient and poked her twig rhythmically and intensely into the earth, making a small neat hole that grew deeper and wider with the least manipulation of her twig. Sula copied her, and soon each had a hole the size of a cup. Nel began a more strenuous digging and, rising to her knee, was careful to scoop out the dirt as she made her hole deeper. Together they worked until the two holes were one and the same. When the depression was the size of a small dishpan, Nel's twig broke. With a gesture of disgust she threw the pieces into the hole they had made. Sula threw hers in too. Nel saw a bottle cap and tossed it in…","meta_description":"Continuing our tour of Ohio, Namwali joins writer and educator Dionne Custer Edwards to discuss ON MORRISON at the Bexley Public Library. They read and op…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1693,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/passages-on-morrison-7850883/episodes/3-playing-in-sula-with-dionne-custer-edwards/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/passages-on-morrison-7850883/3-playing-in-sula-with-dionne-custer-edwards.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}