Beloved Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison was one of the rare, real ones. She was a comet burning bright in the blackness of the night. The American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher and professor died Aug. 5 at 88. Her breakthrough and breathtaking novel, the critically acclaimed, Song of Solomon, which was published in 1970, brought her worldwide attention and was honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award. In her lifetime she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Why was Toni Morrison so important, you may ask. If you are asking you need to read her work right now. In each of her books with magical vision and wondrous poetic weight she brought all of us a new way to think about and look upon Blackness in American everyday life. To describe the impact of her work and the stories she told is almost futile. Carolyn Denard wrote of Toni Morrison, “In her works, she strips away the idols of whiteness and Blackness that have prevented Blacks from knowing themselves and gives them true, mythical, remembered words to live by.” Toni Morrison, in an interview, said, “There is no race, there is only the human race.”

We have provided some videos which will let you experience Toni Morrison and her words and her thinking. She was a revolution.

We recommend you read her work or read it again. You could start with Song of Solomon or Beloved, which are both available as books or audiobooks. Or start at the beginning of Toni Morrison’s journey and legacy and read her first book, The Bluest Eye. May her words ring out for all time, for all people.