Princeton University Plans Tribute To Beloved Author Toni Morrison — Here’s What’s Planned

Princeton University will remember the late author Toni Morrison with a series of events in the coming weeks that will delve into her creative process.

“Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory” will explore all of the author’s writings to examine how they continue to influence the past, present, and future.

Princeton has a unique connection to Morrison, the 1993 Nobel laureate who died in 2019. Morrison had been an assistant professor of English and African American studies at the university.

“This project is bringing artists and scholars to Princeton who may not normally have come here and is pushing the thinking about what the archive can inspire,” Autumn Womack, a professor at Princeton who is leading the initiative, told the New York Times.

The exhibition will open on February 22 in the Firestone Library with 90 never-before-seen manuscript drafts, writings, personal correspondences, photographs, and other items housed in the university’s special collections. It will run through June 4.

The events will also include an art exhibition with artist Alison Saar, newly commissioned performances responding to Morrison’s work, a 3-day symposium featuring more than 30 writers and artists to reflect on her work, a lecture series, children’s programming, and more.

“It is difficult to overstate the importance of Toni Morrison’s writing to American literature, art, and life,” Womack said in a university release. “This exhibition draws us toward the unexplored corners of her writing process and unknown aspects of her creative investments that only live in this archive.”

The exhibition includes about 100 original archival items split into six different categories.

“In imagining this initiative — from exhibition to symposium to partner projects — I wanted to show the importance of the archive to understanding Morrison’s work and practice,” Womack said. “But I also wanted to show how this archive in particular is a site that opens up new lines of inquiry and inspires new kinds of collaboration.”

Among the most interesting items to be included are day planners from 1974 and 1975 when Morrison was working as a senior editor at Random House and outlining Song of Solomon during her free time.

The planners also include notes for speeches and feedback for people she was working with during this time period, including Muhammad Ali and Angela Davis.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity to explore the legacy of Toni Morrison’s work and the remarkable impression she left on Princeton University,” said university librarian Anne Jarvis.

The scope of the project is far-reaching, according to organizers.

“There is not a corner of Princeton University, Black creative life, and cultural production that Toni Morrison has not impacted,” said Womack. “This initiative, we hope, will begin to bring to the surface new aspects of that wide impact.”