NEW YORKER FESTIVAL Talk with TONI MORRISON

The New Yorker Festival; a 3 day celebration of arts & ideas started with the beloved Toni Morrison. She is a distinguished writer and has been duly honored with a Pulitzer, Nobel and Pres Medal of Freedom Award.  There are insufficient laurels to bestow on this gifted author of BELOVED and TAR BABY. The rainy night did not deter a sold out crowd with hopeful individuals waiting in the rain for the opportunity to hear Ms. Morrison in person.  The mismanaged interview was done by Hilton Als, critic for the New Yorker Mag.  Morrison now 84, needed assistance climbing onto the improvised stage where it was difficult to gain a good vantage in the audience.  Her voice, nonetheless, was clear, melodious and rich.  Unfortunately, Als discussion with Ms. Morrison was arcane and abject;  referencing individual characters from her novels leaving the audience nodding off in the dark. Als's erudite references were smug and self-congratulatory.  Al's conversation was off-puting rather than an engaging discussion with the world renown author.  Als did not frame the talk with any social focus or  literary insight.  I was absorbed in Morrison's experiences in the Jim Crow south.  She spoke of them not with harshness but with an eloquence and strength.  She recounted the supportive "colored" community that readily provided support to her & fellow Howard students while travelling throughout  the south.  Morrison mentioned her father having witnessed the lynchings of 2 men from his block before moving with his family to CA. I gathered a unifying theme in all her works containing a forward progression of the protagonist.  According to Morrison, "All my characters are driven towards knowledge and end with having learned & grown."  I felt priviledged to have been present and disappointed by the missed opportunities a more adroit interviewer would have garnered.