Toni Morrison Society Hosts 80th Birthday Celebration for Toni Morrison at the Library of Congress
On Friday, February 18, 2011, the Toni Morrison Society hosted a celebration in honor of Toni Morrison's 80th Birthday in the James Madison Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Michel Martin, host of NPR's "Tell Me More with Michel Martin," was mistress of ceremonies for the evening. Nearly two hundred people attended the birthday celebration, including Society members, Howard alumni, family and friends of Ms. Morrison, and luminaries in education and the arts.
The event featured a Duke Ellington Medley by renowned soprano Jessye Norman and tributes by Dr. Sidney Ribeau of Howard University, Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian of Congress, David Carrasco of Harvard University, and Mary Wilburn of Howard University's Class of '51. Society members Dana Williams and Gregory Carr, who are also faculty members at Howard, compiled, edited and presented an unforgettable video tribute to Ms. Morrison, featuring exclusive photos from her time at Howard as a member of the Howard University Players.
A special tribute from President and Mrs. Obama in honor of Ms. Morrison's 80th Birthday was read by Michel Martin. Vincent Gray, Mayor of the City of Washington, read a proclamation, making February 18, 2011 "Toni Morrison Day" in the city of Washington, D.C.
The Society presented Ms. Morrison a 600-page, hard-bound Festschrift as a birthday gift. The volume included fifty scholarly and personal essays written in honor of her 80th Birthday. The Festschrift, Memory and Meaning: Essays in Honor of Toni Morrison, will be edited and published as a book next spring.
Ms. Morrison concluded the evening with on-stage remarks that were followed by champagne toasts, the singing of "Happy Birthday," and the presentation of a three-layer birthday cake made in the images of the book covers of Love and A Mercy and a blank layer for the novel Ms. Morrison is currently writing. A writer's pen topped the cake.
The Howard University jazz band provided the music.
Sponsors for the birthday celebration included Tyler Perry, Pepsico, Ruth J. Simmons, Emory University, University of Utah, African American Studies Program at Georgetown University, Alfred A. Knopf, International Creative Management, and Scott and Evelyn Schreiber, Billye S. Aaron, Vernon Jordan, and Oberlin College.