Newswise — The Toni Morrison Society and invited guests will honor Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison for her 75th birthday in a champagne reception on Friday, Feb. 17, at Princeton University in New Jersey.
To celebrate, the Society will present Morrison with an inaugural "bench by the road," as part of a new community outreach initiative being launched the same day. Ten signature benches are projected, each commemorating sites important in African American history and in Morrison's novels.
Van-Go Mobile Arts, Inc., a Lawrence, Kan., arts-based social service agency for youth in crisis, was commissioned to design the initial bench. Two young artists, Melanie Bolden and Kali Detherage, working with Van-Go instructor Cathy Ledeker, all of Lawrence, painted the bench that took six weeks to complete.
Carolyn C. Denard, Founder and Society Board Chair, said: "We want the project to mark a few of the lesser known places that not only are important sites in our history but are also particularly significant in Morrison's work." Suggested locations include Harlem's 5th Avenue where the 1917 Silent Parade was held; the site of Emmett Till's death in Mississippi; train station sites in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, where thousands began their journey in the Great Migration; and an all-Black town in Oklahoma. Society members will suggest additional sites.
"We will invite corporations to join us as sponsors of a bench; each bench will have a plaque describing the commemoration, the donor's name, the Society's name, and the date. We see this as a five year project, " added Denard.
The Bench by the Road project is an historical initiative, which the Society believes is important to grasp the full significance of Morrison's work and the kinds of stories she has chosen to tell. The mission of the Society, which began in 1993, is "to initiate, sponsor, and encourage critical dialogue, scholarly publications, conferences and projects devoted to the study of the woks of Toni Morrison."
Maryemma Graham, University of Kansas professor of English and the Society's current president, said, "But this is not simply an intellectual exercise. Morrison's novels in particular are based on what has been difficult to talk about and nearly impossible for all of us to understand.
"The Bench by the Road Project is one of several ways in which we hope to see her work reach a larger audience and have an even greater public impact. Collectively the benches will create an outdoor museum, and each site, a historical marker in a community that has broad historical meaning. Morrison's work allows us to mark these places, but we hope to inspire dialogue and engage them as part of our public memory," Graham added.
The Bench by the Road is the latest of several literary and scholarly initiatives sponsored by the Toni Morrison Society. In 2005, the Society joined with the KU Department of English to support a National Endowment for the Humanities teachers' workshop. Titled "Language Matters II: Reading and Teaching Toni Morrison, the Cardozo Project Model," it included a one-week July seminar at Northern Kentucky University. The seminar preceded the fourth biennial Toni Morrison Society conference held in Cincinnati and co-sponsored by Northern Kentucky University.
Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen professor in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University in New Jersey. Her major awards include the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for "Beloved, " and the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, making her the first African American to be so honored for a body of literary work.
Since her first novel, "The Bluest Eye," was published in 1970, Morrison has written or edited numerous books, including eight novels, collected essays, children's books and a play. Her recent work includes the libretto for "Margaret Garner," a new opera based on the life of the enslaved Kentucky woman who inspired "Beloved." With music composed by Richard Danielpour, the opera was commissioned by companies in Detroit, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. It opens in Charlotte, N.C., in April. Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, on Feb. 18, 1931, Morrison earned degrees at Howard and Cornell Universities and was a senior editor at Random House before becoming an award-winning novelist.
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