June 27, 2010
Toni Morrison shares her thoughts on her childhood and on the changes that libraries are undergoing, and her unwavering desire to be a part of their future. American Library Association | June 27, 2010
Toni Morrison and Libraries: An Intimate Relationship
By Jeanna Vahling
University of Kentucky
This article and video posted with permission of the American Library Association.
Nobel Prize winning author, Pulitzer Prize winner, charming and witty are all words to describe Toni Morrison, this year's Opening Session Keynote Speaker at ALA Annual Conference. More importantly she is a library advocate with a genuine love for our profession. "I suspect that every single author that speaks to librarians can tell you about his or her intimate, steady, and vital relationships to libraries" she said in her opening remarks.
Morrison recalled stories of her youth and her first glimpse of the power of words."I don't even remember my life, my sentient life, before I was able to read." Morrison spoke about her intimate relationship with libraries. She served as a library page after her sister became secretary to the head librarian in the town where they grew up. As Morrison puts it, she was a "very slow page", taking time to read or at least peruse the books she shelved in the stacks.
Toni Morrison and Camila Alire in the green room
"What led me to writing was my hunger for reading" she told the audience as she began to talk about herself as an author. She was hungry for a certain kind of story. One she couldn't find, "so I wrote it, " she humbly stated. It was only by accident that she began to write children's books. She explained that her son provokes the questions while she "pumps them up and develops them" into stories. "He's the one who sort of gives me the laughter and joy that I think I can move along with this, with his help."
She has recently written Peeny Butter Fudge, a story for her grandchildren and her way of passing down a third generation peanut butter fudge recipe. Morrison is pleased with the outcome of this book. "Language is magic for them [grandchildren]. They like rhyme and they like repetition. They invent words. They invent people. It's very creative for them."
Morrison stressed that every library has its purpose - from the newer, community-centered libraries with their adjacent coffee shops to the libraries of yesteryear still posting "no talking" signs. In closing she expressed her desire to secure our future, "because that future is mine as well."
ALA President Camila A. Alire shares a laugh backstage with Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor Toni Morrison.
AL Direct Special Post-Annual Conference issue 7/2/2010