Roommates, we are saddened to report the passing of Nobel peace prize winner Toni Morrison. The Associated Press confirms with a close friend she has passed away at the age of 88.
“Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends,” the Morrison family announces. “She was an extremely devoted mother, grandmother, and aunt who reveled in being with her family and friends. The consulate writer who treasured the written word, whether he own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing.”
Morrison’s family says she died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Although the cause of her passing is not immediately clear, her family says she went peacefully.
Toni is remembered by many, and loved by many more. She makes history as the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Piece Prize in literature. She is the author of 11 novels, children’s books, and essay collections. One of her first works, “The Bluest Eye” is still used to grade schools to exemplify the greatness and complexities of literature.
The main character, Pecola, is a young girl who desires to have white features. She constantly struggles with the will of society, and her reality as a young black girl.
“What was driving me to write was the silence—so many stories untold and unexamined,” Morrison says.
Growing up during the Great Depression, Toni often cites her humble beginnings as the influence to her writing.
“Every book I read about young Black girls–they were props…jokes,” she says in her documentary ‘The Pieces I Am’. “No one took them seriously, ever.”
Toni was often questioned about her target audience, particularly after the release of her works ‘Sula’, ‘Song Of Solomon’, and ‘Tar Baby’. It was clear her audience is black, and people wanted to know why.
“I didn’t want to speak to Black people–I wanted to speak to and smog them,” Toni tells the New York Times. “So the first think I had to do was eliminate the white gaze.”
We are honored to have encountered her Toni Morrison’s great literary works, and are praying for her family and loves ones at this time.
