A MOUTH FULL OF BLOOD

BELOVED

In the troubled years following the American Civil War, the spirit of a murdered child haunts the Ohio home of a former slave. This angry, destructive ghost makes life difficult for Sethe and her family; nevertheless, the woman finds the haunting oddly comforting for the spirit is that of her own dead baby, never named, thought of only as Beloved.

HOME

An angry veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. But Frank is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from, which he's hated all his life.

JAZZ

It is 1926 and winter grips Harlem. Joe Trace shoots to death his lover, the impetuous 18-year-old Dorcas. At the funeral his determined, hardworking wife Violet tries to disfigure the corpse with a knife. Their story captures the complex humanity of black American urban life at that time.

RECITATIF

Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old, when they were thrown together as roommates in a girls' shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only to meet again later at a diner, a grocery store and then at a protest. The two women are seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, but despite their conflict, the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them is undeniable. Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?