“You will never know … [anything],” her mother screamed at her. “Don’t nobody want you; don’t nobody need you.”

Claireece (Precious) stood still and took the abuse from her mother; it was nothing new.

Even if they haven’t seen it, many people have heard of “Precious,” the film about a 16-year-old obese, illiterate, black girl who is physically and emotionally abused by her mother and sexually abused by her father.

The award-winning, 2009 film is based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, Auraria’s 2010 bridge speaker.

The bridge speaker is a tradition started at Auraria campus 19 years ago to highlight the contributions of African-American women. The speakers tend to be academics.

“That’s why we’re really excited this year because Sapphire is an academic, but she’s a writer — she’s a creative writer,” said Joanna Snawder, the associate director of Metro’s Women’s Studies and Services Department.

Sapphire reads selections from her novel, “Push” on Sept. 12, 2009, at the Toronto International Film Festival. The award-winning film, “Precious” was based on her book. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.

According to Snawder, Sapphire was a social worker for many years, and that is what inspired her to write “Push.” Claireece is a composite of all the women Sapphire observed.

Snawder said the reason Sapphire was chosen is three-tiered. The first reason is it’s timely since the movie recently came out.

“In a year, some of this hub-bub will go away,” she said. “[We wanted to] strike while the iron’s hot.”

Another reason Sapphire was chosen was because of the issues she addresses in “Push.”

“It looks at all these big societal problems and how they are enacted within the body of this young woman, Precious,” Snawder said. “I think those environmental-justice issues — race, class, gender, fat oppression, access to health care, education — it’s all encompassed in this story.”

The final reason she was chosen, Snawder said, is because it’s an important film for Denver. The producers, Sarah Siegel-Magness and her husband, Gary Magness, live in Denver, and the film premiered at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.

“This is an important film for this community,” Snawder said. “It feels very personal; it feels like we’re very connected to it.”

Snawder said she feels honored that Auraria was able to book Sapphire, especially because “we’re not a Yale or Harvard that can pay” for speakers of her popularity.

“She’s in high demand; a lot of campuses are not getting Sapphire,” Snawder said. “This is a really big deal for our campus.”

Snawder said she thinks people should come to hear Sapphire speak, not only because it’s an honor to have her, but also because the issues in the novel and film are controversial.

“What I hear a lot when I ask people if they’ve read “Push” or watched “Precious” is ‘ooh, that’s that story’ and ‘ooh’ with that scrunched-up face and with kind of a panic with ‘I don’t want to know about that,’” Snawder said. “And I understand why — it’s very taboo; it’s very difficult subject matter.”

She thinks if people listen to Sapphire they will understand why she wrote the book and “what their role is in this character’s situation cause we all have a role.”

“This is about social justice; this is about building broader movements and changing people’s ideas.”