Toni Morrison Memorialized By More Than 3,000

By N. Jamiyla Chisholm Nov 22, 2019

Luminaries including Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Edwidge Danticat and Ta-Nehisi Coates joined more than 3,000 other people at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City on Thursday (November 21) to pay tribute to iconic author Toni Morrison.

Morrison, who died on August 5 at age 88, left behind a treasure of complex and honest narratives about Black experiences and a fan base that rivals pop stars. Not many can match Morrison’s accolades—she’s won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Nobel Prize in Literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—or the way her work has impacted the masses.

Per The New York Times, here are some of the accolades heaped on the late writer at the event:

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  • Oprah Winfrey: “She took the canon and broke it open.”
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  • Angela Davis: “So many of us feel that we had found ourselves through, because of and in relation to Toni and her work.”
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  • Jesmyn Ward: “We wandering children heard Toni Morrison’s voice, and she saved us.”
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Watch the livestream of the memorial, courtesy of The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine: