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All Of It with Alison Stewart
Toni Morrison The Editor
00:26:00
Professor Dana A. Williams discusses her new book about Toni Morrison's career as an editor, "Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship"
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- [00:00]
Dana Williams
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Alison Stewart
This is all of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Toni Morrison is one of the most celebrated authors, but around the offices at the Random House Publishing Group, Tony was known as a Senior Editor. From 1967 to 1983, Morrison worked as a Random House editor and was the first black woman to hold that title. In the company's history. Morrison edited major public figures like Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis and Huey Newton, but she also pioneered books for a new generation of black readers interested in seeing their stories reflected on the page. She did all of this while simultaneously writing some of the best novels in American literature. It's all captured in a new book out today called Tony at Ranch. It's written by Dr. Dana Williams, Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University and professor of African American literature. In the book, she covers Morrison's stories about her relationships with authors and her efforts to change the publishing industry. From the inside. Professor Dana Williams is with me now in studio. May I call you Dana?
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Dana Williams
Absolutely.
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Alison Stewart
Hi, Dana.
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Dana Williams
Hi, Alison. Thanks for having me.
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Alison Stewart
I read that Toni Morrison requested that you be the one to write that this story. How'd you find out?
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Dana Williams
Well, it was an interesting situation in the sense that she knew that I was working on the book, knew that I had well, actually, she knew that I had the idea for the book, and she said, if there's anything that I can do to be supportive, let me know. I said, all right. So I do my interview, the first one with her at Princeton, and I want to talk about the fiction writers because that was the plan for the book initially. Let's just talk about these writers and this fiction and see if I can make these connections with Morrison. She then starts talking about Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, black book, you name it, everything except fiction. But how do you tell Toni Morrison, hey, this is not what we agreed on, but she was also such just a just a great storyteller. So I just went with it. And then the next time we had a conversation, she talked about the fiction writers for a short period of time, but then continued to talk about cookbooks and anthologies. And I thought, maybe I'm supposed to be doing something else. So it was several interviews in that I realized, all right, I'm supposed to do this book on the larger editorship and not just on this thing. So I appreciated the fact that she didn't say, ma' am, this is what you're going to do, but just let me find my way into it. And then once I got there, we kind of chuckled like, okay, you finally got it.
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Alison Stewart
She was being an editor.
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Dana Williams
Absolutely. She was editing me. She was literally editing me, and I didn't know it.
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Alison Stewart
All right, so once you all settle on what the book's going to be, what did you see as your job? What was expected of you on this assignment?
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Dana Williams
Well, one of the things that we started with was just really figuring out who should be on the list. She literally had a partial list. And then as I began to do research, I was like, oh, there's this book. Is this your book? And she's like, oh, I forgot about that book.
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Alison Stewart
Oh, wow.
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Dana Williams
So the first thing we had to do was get a comprehensive list. Once we got that comprehensive list, we really decided to just tell the story the way that the story evolves in my narrative framing, if you will. So the upside of it, too, was she was supportive, but not, like, very hands off. She didn't say, this is what we're gonna do. This is how we're gonna craft it. It was my book, my thing to do. And so I had to find ways to tell the story so that it was accessible, but also so that it showed the full depth of the work that she had to paying attention to covers, making decisions about titles, thinking about length, thinking about the cost of the book, who are the writers that she's going to recruit. So it was really trying to find a narrative arc for the story that would make it really interesting for the reader. And, of course, there's lots of B roll that my editor and I are saying couldn't make the book.
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Alison Stewart
When you went through Toni Morrison's archive, first of all, what access did you have to her archives?
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Dana Williams
The Columbia Rare Books room has the Random House archives, and so that's where I spent most of the time. And you have to make the request to see whatever is available and accessible at any given time. But the team there, shout out to Tara Craig was just great in terms of making sure that I could see anything that was relevant. And then her archives at Princeton were also a part of the conversation. But then I also wanted to make sure that I got the other part of the conversation. So if I'm looking at what came in the archive or the. That came to her From June Jordan. I also went to Harvard to see what June Jordan sent and what she wrote back. Same thing with Toni. Cade Bambara at Spelman, Lucille Clifton at Emory. So I was trying to make sure that I saw both sides of the story, because the one thing you don't want is to miss something really important. That was a big fear, but, like, I'm over it.
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Alison Stewart
What was a realization you had about Morrison's editorial process from researching her archives?
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Dana Williams
That she was strategic in every way. And, I mean, I guess I should have known that, because I think she is a strategic writer. We do away with the beginning, middle, end of the story. She tells us the story up front and then says, now I'm going to explain how this happened. So I knew that she wasn't a traditional kind of writer. I didn't think about her as a traditional editor. When people. You think about the fact that she was literally writing people who were teaching an MFA program saying, if you got a really interesting student, send me their manuscripts. And that's how she discovers Gail Jones. And then trying to figure out, how am I going to get Gail Jones attention? Which of these manuscripts should I put out first? Who's the best person to try to pitch this to in terms of a review? What does the COVID need to look like? There are pieces of correspondence where she's literally working with a designer to talk about color, the color of the book, because she says, my last book was purple. This book can't be purple because if it ends up in the window and people are picking it up, their eye won't stop on it. So she was meticulous and paid attention to details in ways that you think about for a writer, but as an editor, just really incredible.
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Alison Stewart
I love the COVID of your book.
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Dana Williams
Oh, thank you. That was its own story.
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Alison Stewart
It's so interesting because it's got all of the red pens that an editor would use on the book. Tell me a little bit about the story.
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Dana Williams
It was fun to do and to work with the design team on. And I promised myself and promised the team that I would not be one of those writers that I wrote about, that I was not going to be the. No, this doesn't work. And the first cover, I was like, oh, that's not what I had in mind. It was a great cover because it was Morrison and Angela Davis walking down the street. We've all seen it. But I also thought that it was a little bit too familiar. There was another cover with a side view of Morrison. And so I said, white Morrison looking dead. On and then whatever you want to do with the design in terms of, like, making sure that we're clear about the editorship element. So I really appreciated the team's willingness to listen to me and to hear the vision. I mean, I knew that they had read it and they were excited about it. But I did have a view of what I thought the COVID should look like. I admit it, and I should have just said it up front, especially as a person who talked about people who were fussing about covers. Yeah.
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Alison Stewart
It's a good cover, though.
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Dana Williams
Thank you.
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Alison Stewart
My guest is Dana Williams, professor of African American Literature and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. We're discussing her book, Toni at A History of Toni Morrison's Work as an Editor in Publishing. You go back a little bit, you tell us a little bit of bio. She was born in Ohio, Chloe Woodford, in 1931. When you think about her childhood and her education, how did that inform her as an editor?
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Dana Williams
I think she was curious even as a young person. And I think she was paying attention to what was happening in books and wondering why certain images weren't there. And she was very clear about that, even when she was at LW Singer as an editor, that she wanted to make sure that certain books got published. And then I think just being a reader, having worked in a library, really trying to figure out. And there's a chapter in one of the chapters I call Finding Her Form. I really do think she was trying to figure out what art form was most important for her. There's this beautiful line in SULA where essentially we hear that had she been a dancer, had she been a writer, had she been like some, if she had an artistic form, she would not have self destructed. Something similar happens in jazz. But what we see Morrison doing as a child is figuring out what artistic form is going to work for her. Because she wanted to be a dancer. And then by the time she's at Howard, she's doing a lot in the theater and being an actress. Then she knows that she wants to write. But editing becomes a part of that form as well. So I think growing up in Ohio around the full range of types of people meant that she could hear sounds and process and begin to think about what difference means, how you appeal to different people's sensibilities.
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Alison Stewart
What was going on with Toni when she learned about this opportunity at Random House?
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Dana Williams
It was interesting. So at the time, she had just finished teaching at Howard in the Department of English, where she taught humanities courses and English courses. And she Was still doing some work in the theater and working with young people and poets. A group of philosophy students who dubbed themselves the Howard Poets. But her time at Howard was up. There was, and still is, to some degree, a limit to the amount of time that faculty can be in an instructor position. Before they have to go into a tenure track position. And she had not really tried to earn the PhD. So the seven years ended, and it was time for her to find something else to do. She's divorced, she has one kid, and she's pregnant with another. So she has to go home to recalibrate and figure out what her next move will be. And then the way that she tells the story is not one, not two, but three copies of the same New York Review of Books comes to her home, her mother's home. And we talked about it a little bit and laughed to say, like, they had to find her. There was probably, like, a forwarded address. So she gets the copy, and she decides, like, I think I can do this job because I know what good textbooks look like. So I want to try to do some work with textbooks. So she starts at LW Singer, a really small textbook company that ran Random House, acquires. And then, because she was memorable and impressive. When the executives from Random House come down to see who they're going to move to the Manhattan office. She's one of the people who gets an invitation to move.
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Alison Stewart
You wrote about Random House. This is interesting. By the time Morrison joined Random House, the firm was caught in the crosshairs of the failed attempts at racial integration that characterized the 1950s. And black people's growing intolerance for the slow pace and modest gains of the civil rights rights movement.
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Dana Williams
Yes.
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Alison Stewart
What was the publishing industry like when she started at Random House?
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Dana Williams
The mainstream publishing houses, including Random House, overwhelmingly were focused on issues that were of interest mainly to mainstream white people. It was also at a time when black publishers were still in their heyday. So most of the literature and most of the social commentary. Was published by independent black publishers. So what she was trying to figure out how to do was how do we get the attention that we need. So that there is this mainstream opportunity that's there. But that is mindful of everything from congressional hearings about representations of black people in books, in public schools. The way that Texas buys books and the way that California buys books. Essentially dictates how everybody else comes to know and understand the world. And it's just fascinating to me that this single person thought, I can change, that I can do textbooks. That I can convince school districts to buy because there was actually a congressional mandate to try to do that.
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Alison Stewart
My guest is Dana Williams, professor of African American Literature and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. We're discussing her book, Toni at Random, about Toni Morrison's work as an editor in publishing. We'll have more after a quick break. This is all of It. You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest in studio is Dana Williams, professor of African American Literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. We're discussing her book, Toni at A History of Toni Morrison's work as an editor in publishing. The book is out. Happy Pub Day, by the way.
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Dana Williams
Thank you.
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Alison Stewart
So you interviewed a few authors that Toni Morrison edited at Random House. What did they tell you? What was their perspective of working with her?
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Dana Williams
I appreciate it so much how generous those authors were. In part, they said it was because Morrison had been incredibly generous to them with her time and her talent. Everybody said she made the book better. And I know that's what you're supposed to say with your editor, but when they gave me very specific examples, I could understand a little bit differently. I talk a little bit about this particular story in the book with Angela Davis. The reticence that Angela Davis had about writing the book was the fear that it would have to be a tell all. That the only reason that the industry wanted it was because they wanted her to tell stories and secrets. And she really wanted to continue to fight and be an activist in the movement. So Morrison made sure that she could tell that story, and that was a fight. It wasn't easy, you know, because the industry did want to tell all. And so she said, essentially, this is the book that she's going to get, and I'll guarantee that it's good. You'll get some information that you wouldn't otherwise. So, like, I think Angela Davis was very clear that Morrison's prodding saying, Angela, what did the room look like? What did it smell like? Like, describe it. Like, what did you feel like? You're giving us facts. You're reporting. I need you to, like, literally tell us what you experience so that we can be there with you. And I heard that over and over again, even with fiction writers. When I Talked to John McCluskey, who is delightful in every way as a fiction writer, and the way that he described the questions that Morrison asked. And there's a really wonderful kind of personal, anecdotal story, too. He had driven up from the Midwest to have his meeting with her to talk about the contract. And he says he's getting. She asked basically, like, are you ready to go to lunch? Or, like, let's go somewhere? He said, well, my wife and my son are in the car, and she just stops doing everything and goes downstairs to say hello to them. Because it was not just work for her. It was, how do I interact with people on their own terms. She got on a bus to go see William Hinton because he didn't really want to go to the city. So I learned a lot just in terms of who she was as a personality with those editors, with those writers, rather, that she worked with. And they appreciated how she would probe and prod until they got to where they needed to be.
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Alison Stewart
How did she do with new writers, people that she found that was fascinating.
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Dana Williams
I think, because as a new editor, she didn't have a list. So it takes a while for you to build your list. So she's looking for writers, and sometimes people find her. The one who comes to mind most immediately is Leon Forrest, who is one of my favorite writers, I must say. And really, the way that I describe Leon Forrest to people, and they're like, relan Forrest. Who's that? And I'm like, toni Morrison was his editor, and that gives him his bone a few days, right? So she finds him, because her editor at Holt Reinhardt, where she had done the Bluest Eye, says, I kind of like this book, but I don't exactly know what's happening in this book. I know somebody who might. And so he sent it to Morrison. And that's how she kind of discovers Forrest. The editor had told Forrest, you might want to talk to someone who may know what's going on. Here's her information. Morrison gets it. He gets Morrison's information. And here's the thing that tickles me. Back in the day, you just called somebody. You picked up the phone, you called, and you said, hi. This person said to give you a buzz. Can you talk or can. And so she says, the next time you're in town, let me know. And he was an editor for Muhammad Speaks out of Chicago, and he was in the city reviewing a Melvin Van People's Play and says, I'll be in town. Can we meet? They meet, they talk, they discuss. So I think she was very generous with young writers, in part because she was a young writer herself, but also if she admired what you were trying to do, this non traditional way of writing is kind of experimental, but then also books where she was clear she wanted books of fiction that she edited to be similar to the ones that she did, and not in terms of style, but they had to talk to the audience. And the understood reader was a black reader. And that was really important that it wasn't someone who was writing for people who didn't see them. So I think she was really attracted to writers who did that kind of work. And, of course, she talks a lot about that's what she wanted to do. So being attracted to writers who do that is just really important.
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Alison Stewart
We should point out that she is writing her own books at this time. How did that work? Did she write them for Random House? Did she have. Because Gottlieb was her editor, right?
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Dana Williams
Yes. She talked often about the benefit of having an editor on one floor and her being on another floor, like in House. But it was clear also that there would be somewhat of a conflict if she had an editor who was at Random House. So he gave her the choice. Bob Bernstein gives her the choice to say, do you want to work for Knopf or do you want to work for Random House? And do you want to. Who do you want to publish with and who do you want to be an editor for? And so she decides, I'll edit at Random House and I'll publish at Knopf.
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Alison Stewart
In what ways do you think her experience as a writer helped her as an editor?
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Dana Williams
Oh, I think the one that struck me the most immediately was Creole Feast, a cookbook that she worked on. And people have talked about this, like, so people who do food studies work and people who read literature, like, pay attention to small things like recipes in the middle of a novel. So in paradise, you learn how to make something in Song of Solomon. So she goes into these details about how to make biscuits or, like, a pot pie or whatever it is that she's making. And then I see her notes for Creole Feast, this cookbook of these chefs in New Orleans, and I go, oh, my goodness, this is how she, like. I mean, she's a great cook, too, right? But also understanding how you take a recipe and make it narrative, because the chefs sent her ingredients and that was it. And she's like, wait, I can't, like, make a cookbook that says, a pinch of salt, put a little salt, like, boil for a while, you know, like, what order does this go in? And she tested a lot of the recipes for that collection also to say, hey, literally, I tested it, and these bars aren't holding up. Like, so the experiment of, like, what do I do? In what order? That was one way. And then I think there are just some nods here and there. One of the writers that she edited, Henry Dumas, was from Sweet Home, Arkansas. And so we know Sweet Home is the place in Beloved. When she read Leon Forrest, she thought, like, if I want to think about how to write a sermon, I read Leon Forrest. And so I tend to think about Baby Suggs and the clearing and relation. So I think it was a give and take. I think she learned as much as editor as she did as a writer. And I think she learned as much from her writers as they did from her as their editor.
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Alison Stewart
We're talking about the book Toni at A History of Toni Morrison's Work as an editor in Publishing. The book is out today. I'm speaking with Dana Williams, its author. Let's talk about her work with Muhammad Ali.
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Dana Williams
Yes.
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Alison Stewart
What made Ali's memoir a unique challenge for. For Morrison?
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Dana Williams
Well, one thing was it was a book that she inherited. And that always complicates relationships with authors. If you don't sign the person and you don't have the benefit of knowing personalities and all of the players early on, it can be tricky. So she had to navigate that space. But he also had to have, obviously a writer. When he signs the contract for the book with much fanfare, everybody's excited. Like, Muhammad Ali is in the public imagination because he's been stripped of his license to box and he's going to tell the story. And he's a larger than life figure, just in a general sense because of his well known bravado. But he gets his license back, which means he's no longer sitting down writing and working with his writer to make sure that he tells the story. He's back in the ring. So they are years and years and years behind this contract that they've paid this big advance for. And they're looking to her to say, should we just abandon this? And she's like, nope, let's hang in here. I think I can get what we need done. And then he essentially says, I know how I want this story to end. It will end with me like restoring my title as heavyweight champion. And when that's the case, one of the first telegrams that he sends is actually to his publisher to say, I told you, now we can end this book the way that we want to end this book. And so the journey really began to make sure that the book could be put together while the energy was still high. When he reclaims his title, not a single chapter is complete. So then she has the writer come to New York. They work together for A month on the book nonstop. And then they're able to put the book to bed and to get it out with a 100,000 copy print run that sells out fairly quickly.
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Alison Stewart
She wasn't that into sports, though.
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Dana Williams
No.
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Alison Stewart
Which is interesting. Which is interesting because it also shows to be a good editor, you don't necessarily have to be into the topic. You just have to be a very good editor.
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Dana Williams
That's right. You have to know what questions to ask and you have to anticipate what the reader wants. And the piece that she does in promo, which was also a big part of her editing work, like after the book came out, she was really, really working publicity. Then she has this piece that she puts in the Times because by now she's somewhat of a famous writer. Why the crowd roar? She's like, I'm not really that into sports, but this is a book that I'll stop to read.
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Alison Stewart
Why did Toni Morrison's tenure at Random House end, really?
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Dana Williams
She wanted to focus fully on writing. She joked, but said it wasn't funny at all. And I think she lived her life this way, that she was a child of the Depression. She didn't believe in not having a stable income. She was serious that I know that I'm a writer and I know that I can make money, but I need a stable job. So imagine someone who grew up at a time when they just weren't sure of, like, what would happen if they didn't have an income that was guaranteed. By the time she leaves Random House, she's confident that she can make a good living exclusively writing books. And really, she got to the point where she didn't want to just steal time writing. She wanted to write full time.
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Alison Stewart
What do you think Toni Morrison's legacy is in publishing as an editor?
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Dana Williams
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that she midwifed a whole generation of writers. Writers that we might not have otherwise seen, certainly writers that would not have gotten the kind of attention. I don't know that Gail Jones gets the kind of attention that she gets absent Toni Morrison, I tend to think, and that's because of personality. I tend to think that Toni K. Bambara would have been a shining star no matter what, just because she too had the kind of personality that people were drawn to. But I don't know that someone else would have taken a risk on publishing a collection of short stories. Short stories don't make money in publishing in the same way that novels do. And I don't know that anyone else would have been able to convince Toni K. Bambara to write a novel. So I think the legacy that she leaves will be related to those books that she's able to publish with a certain level of excellence and with the expectation of greatness among the people she worked with.
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Alison Stewart
The name of the book is Tony at Random. It's out today. My guest has been professor of African American literature and dean of the Graduate school at Howard University, Dana Williams. Dana, thanks for being with us.
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Dana Williams
Thank you. It's been my pleasure. Since WNYC's first broadcast in 1924, we've been dedicated to creating the kind of content we know the world needs. Since then, New York Public Radio's rigorous journalism has gone on to win a Peabody award and a DuPont Columbia Award, among others. In addition to this award winning reporting, your sponsorship also supports inspiring storytelling and extraordinary music that is free and accessible to all. To get in touch and find out more, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.