I, for one, submit that Black history will always hover over American literature, whether or not the author intends it to. Why is the boy running toward instead of away from Alabama, as so many Black folks have done since the Great Migration? — before jumping back a few years, to 1985, when Ava drags 10-year-old Toussaint into a homeless shelter in Philadelphia. The mother and son have been thrown out of the home they shared with Abemi, Ava’s abusive husband and Toussaint’s stepfather, in New Jersey. Mathis renders Ava and Toussaint’s time in the shelter in poignant, heartbreaking detail.

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Persons: Ayana Mathis, I’m, Toni Morrison, ” Ayana, “, Hattie ” —, Mathis, Ava, Toussaint, Toussaint’s, Cass Organizations: Black Locations: Philadelphia, Dutchess, Ava’s, Alabama, Bonaparte, Ala, Ava, New Jersey