On Monday, the U.S. lost one of its literary giants who carved out a space for African-American voices. 

Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison died Monday night, at a hospital in the Bronx, from complications of pneumonia. Her death was announced yesterday by her publisher Alfred A. Knopf. She was 88. 

Photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders paid tribute to the acclaimed novelist in “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.” The film will play in select theaters in Chicago and Champaign later this month. 

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Toni Morrison, Whose Soaring Novels Were Rooted In Black Lives, Dies At 88

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Morning Shift reflects on the life and legacy of the celebrated novelist. 

GUESTS: Natalie Moore, WBEZ reporter on the Race, Class and Communities Desk

Badia Ahad-Legardy, associate professor of English at Loyola University

LEARN MORE: Toni Morrison, Towering Novelist of the Black Experience, Dies at 88 (The New York Times 8/6/19)

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Gene Siskel Film Center)