On Tuesday morning, March 19 th , at the opening event of the week-long activities celebrating the Inauguration on March 22 nd of Dr. Tomika LaGrande as the 9 th President of Prairie View A& M University, the Toni Morrison Society will unveil its 33 rd Bench by the Road. This Bench will honor the University’s founders, Matthew Gaines and William H. Holland. The educational initiatives of these Reconstruction Era legislators led to the August 14, 1876 establishment of the Alta Vista Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth, which later became Prairie View A&M University. The Bench Unveiling Ceremony will begin at 10:30a.m. on Tuesday at the Opal Johnson-Smith Auditorium in the William A. Tempton, Sr. Memorial Student Center on the Prairie View Campus.
Words from Toni Morrison....
"Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference – the way in which we are like no other life.
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." From Nobel Lecture, 1993
>>February 18th 3:00pm
Balm and Gilead Concert with Special Tribute to Toni Morrison
First Congregational Church
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
>>February 28-29
Toni Morrison Fellowship
Inauguration Program
Keynote: Farah Jasmine Griffin (Live Streamed)
>>March 19, 2024
Bench by the Road Placement
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, Texas
>>April 10-13
CLA 82nd Annual Conference
Hilton Hotel
Memphis, Tennessee
>>April 18-20
“Stories for All” Festival
Featuring the Bench by the Road Project
Lawrence, Kansas
>>May 23-26
35th American Literature Association
Conference
Palmer House Hilton
Chicago, Illinois