On February 24, 2005, Toni Morrison was having lunch in my East Village kitchen. The conversation turned to "divas," as Toni described the extraordinarily talented performers she had auditioned for her opera, Margaret Garner. "Timothy, we should do a portrait book on these women. "Call it . . . Black Divas."
It got me thinking about all the African Americans I knew and had photographed. I made a list: Toni of course, David Hammons, Bill T. Jones, and Colin Powell quickly came to mind.
Eventually, I envisioned a more broad-based project than opera stars and called my friend Elvis Mitchell for a lunch. By dessert we had 175 names on napkins, and the idea had morphed into a book, film, and portrait exhibition. "Let's call it 'The Black List,'" Elvis said. "We need to make it a good thing to be on 'The Black List.'"
I knew that the trick was to get a few great names onboard, and then others would follow. I called Toni Morrison and Thelma Golden. They both said yes, and we were on our way.
Thousands of people belong in The Black List Project. Sometimes our deadline and the subject's availability were impossible to coordinate. Yes, "so and so" belongs in here. We agree!
— Timothy Greenfield-Sanders