She’s been called “America’s Shakespeare” and one of Ohio’s “Black queens.” Wednesday kicks off a yearlong celebration of one of the most revered authors of the past century: Toni Morrison. The life, literature and legacy of the Lorain native are being honored statewide, starting on what would have been her 95th birthday.
Before she died in 2019, her work included children’s books, plays, poetry and novels like 2015’s “God Bless the Child,” 1997’s “Paradise” and 1977’s “Song of Solomon.” In 1988, she received the Pulitzer Prize for “Beloved.” During her career, Morrison was also recognized with a Nobel Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and dozens of other awards.
“She is our Dickens; she is our Shakespeare,” said writer Namwali Serpell, who is coming to Ohio this week for three events related to her new book, “On Morrison.”
“I think Toni Morrison is one of the few writers we have, that we still read now, whose work can bear the kind of rereading and analysis that we often do with great canonical works of literature from the past,” she said. “She created a corpus of works that are so rich and varied. Her books are all very different from each other.”
Of Morrison’s 1970 debut set in her hometown, “The Bluest Eye,” Serpell marveled at the author’s narrative choices.
“What you actually experience when you read the book is everybody else's voice,” she said. “Morrison felt that Pecola had suffered so many forms of suppression, repression … basically blotted her out, that she was a kind of void. That's the term Morrison uses in her preface. So, to give her a voice would be to undermine our sense of how much the community around her had in fact contributed to that obliteration of her spirit.”
Until leaving Lorain for Howard University in Washington, D.C., Morrison grew up in a very different world than the one in her books.
“Most of my writing about … the Black family, the Black community, is part of my life, but a lot of it was inquiry,” she told CBS News in 2004. “I never lived in a Black neighborhood.”
Before becoming a professional writer, Morrison once worked at the Lorain Public Library. Local lore says she was fired for reading the books that she was supposed to be shelving. Now the library is honoring her work with a week of book discussions and other events as part of the statewide celebration.
Events in Appalachia
Trevellya Ford, with the Mt. Zion Black Cultural Center in Athens County, called Morrison one of Ohio’s “Black queens.”
“Do you know how many black women are queens from this area?” Ford said. “It will blow your mind: 10 or 15 federal judges, Nancy Wilson, Halle Berry. A lot of our ancestry came from Appalachia, even though many don't … realize that Black folk came from this area. That's why it's so important to have Toni Morrison not only come from this area but become the queen from this area.”
The center presents a student-led Morrison program next week, with a short play and a recital of her Nobel Prize speech. In April, they’ll partner with Ohio University for panel discussions about Morrison’s stories of Black women from Appalachia. In November, the center plans to christen its new home, in a historic Black church, with an exhibit honoring Black women of note from Ohio, including Morrison. Ford said they’ll draw from “Queens of the Heartland” at the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce.
Other events include screenings of the 2019 documentary “Toni Morrison-The Pieces I Am” in Sandusky, East Cleveland and Columbus. A kick-off event, live from Columbus, streams online Wednesday at 5 p.m.