Celebrating and Honoring Toni Morrison

Published:

February 19, 2020

Inscriptions for the Future: Toni Morrison and Black Feminist Beginnings

Time: 7:30 p.m.
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 19
Location: Joe Rosenfield ‘25 Center, Room 101

Before Toni Morrison became the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993), before Beloved, before The Oprah Winfrey Show and its eponymous book club, Morrison was a relative unknown to the general public, overlooked and undervalued as a black woman in American letters.

But for black women in the academy, for black writers touched by her editorial prowess, and among those within literary sister circles who debated Morrison's treatment of black beauty, slavery, and the white gaze, her value was never in question.

How did Morrison move from editor, to writer, and now, at Grinnell, to a fixture carved in stone within an entablature once reserved for white men? Join us as Professor Shanna Benjamin marks the unveiling of Morrison's inscription in the walls of Grinnell's new Humanities and Social Studies Center with a public talk that situates this moment within a longer history of #blackgirlmagic.

Morrison Inscription Unveiling

Time: 4:15 p.m.
Date: Thursday, February 20
Location: Humanities and Social Studies Center, Atrium

Please join us as we celebrate the inaugural thought leader inscription on the walls of the HSSC Atrium, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. President Raynard S. Kington will deliver remarks about the thought leader inscription project and the selection of Toni Morrison as the first new name to be inscribed in a Grinnell College academic building in over 100 years.

These events are co-sponsored by the Office of the President, Center for the Humanities, and the President’s Mellon Grant for Public Humanities. Everyone is welcome.

Grinnell College welcomes the participation of people with disabilities. Accommodation requests may be made to Conference Operations.

The College welcomes the presence of minors at all age-appropriate public events and for informal visits, with the understanding that a parent, legal guardian, or other responsible adult assumes full responsibility for their child’s safety and behavior during such visits or events. In these cases the College expects that an adult responsible for the visiting child takes measures to ensure the child’s safety and sees that the child complies with directions of College personnel. Grinnell College is not responsible for supervision of minors on campus.

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Center for the Humanities