Episode 41 | Angela Davis and Hilton Als

The activist and author Angela Davis and the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and curator Hilton Als in conversation about one of their favorite subjects and dearest friends: Toni Morrison. Early on in her career, Morrison worked as a kind of activist editor at Random House, where she helped change the landscape of publishing—including her effort to bring Davis’s landmark political autobiography to the public in 1974. (It was just republished in its third edition.) Recently, Als curated Toni Morrison’s Black Book at David Zwirner’s 19th Street gallery in New York, a group exhibition that draws astonishing connections between Morrison’s life and words and works by Beverly Buchanan, Robert Gober, Julie Mehretu, Kerry James Marshall, and many more. 

Toni Morrison’s Black Book, curated by Hilton Als, is on view through February 26, 2022. 

Angela Davis: An Autobiography was republished in its third edition in January 2022, featuring an expansive new introduction by the author.