Celebrating Toni Morrison at the Bexley Public Library

Juliana Farrington is a guest contributor and Public Service Associate at Bexley Public Library. |

www.bexleylibrary.org

American Novelist, Toni Morrison

Every February, in honor of Toni Morrison Day, I choose one of Morrison’s novels to read. Last year I reread Song of Solomon, my personal copy softened around the edges, pages dogeared, my handwriting in the margins. Inside the cover I’d copied, “It is about love. What else but love?” This quote has been lodged in my brain since encountering it a decade ago.

It had been February then, too, and the quote inspired me to make Valentines. I see that younger version of myself a bit like Guitar sees Milkman in the novel, as a person who’s not very serious. By which I mean I first read Morrison with a young poet’s hungry eyes, seeking lovely underlinable lines that I could write out in calligraphy and use on cards. I was awestruck by her lyricism.

Her friend and fellow writer, A.J. Verdelle, says Morrison “did use pretty language, but pretty is not sugar; her words lean–tough, pointed, and sometimes mean. You were caught when you read Morrison. It was impossible to read and look away.” Pretty but oftentimes blunt. Pretty but to the point. Her true but fictional characters, settings, and scenes, the real themes, showing us something of the world, of the human condition.

Her books are about love. And also race, rage, police, mercy, and beauty. They are about America, female empowerment, and culture writ large. Her books are enduring and ever-relevant. In her children’s book, Please, Louise, Morrison presents Louise with library books and explains, “These books are loyal friends, helping you explore, dream, discover, think, learn, and know much, much more.” And so are her books to us.

Join BPL in “Celebrating Toni Morrison” with Hanif Abdurraqib and Dionne Custer Edwards, Thursday, February 16, at 6:30pm.