What: Tribute to Toni Morrison at Columbia University

When: Saturday, May 5 at 5:00PM

Where: Columbia University
116th & Broadway (Lerner Hall)
New York NY 10027
646-229-1711

Event Description:
On Saturday, May 5, 2007, African Voices, the premier Black
literary arts magazine, will present a musical and poetic
tribute to Nobel prize-winning author and humanitarian Toni
Morrison. Ms. Morrison will be in attendance and will be the
recipient of the organization’s Ellie Charles Artists Awards
for her contributions to the literary community. Actor Avery
Brooks will serve as the Master of Ceremonies for a poetic and
musical tribute to Ms. Morrison. The program is a benefit for
African Voices, a non-profit literary magazine that sponsors
readings, the Reel Sisters Film Festival and other cultural
events. The reception begins at 5:30 pm and awards ceremony
starts at 6:30 pm at Columbia University, Lerner Hall (116th
St. & Broadway).

Arrangements are being made for Toni Morrison to take a group
picture with all BWGA members who attends this event.

Currently there are less that 20 discounted tickets at a low
price of $100 only for online members of BWGA here on Meetup.
com. All others can contact African Voices magazine for
individual tickets at $150 & $125. Your ticket through BWGA
entitles you to one seat at one of two tables reserved for
Black Writers Guild of America. Call Mark Anthony now at 718-
993-2999 to make arrangements to hold one or two seats for the
Toni Morrison event on May 5th, 2007.

To R.S.V.P. for this event …CLICK FOLLOWING LINK
http://africanamerauth.meetup.com/40/

Ellie Charles Artists Awards is named after the organization’s
first chairperson Eleanor “Ellie” Charles who dedicated her
life to supporting the arts, education and young people. In
1998, the late legendary photographer Gordon Parks became the
first artist to receive African Voices distinguished artist
award. Past Ellie Award recipients are actress/activist Ruby
Dee and award-winning authors Walter Mosley and Wole Soyinka,
poets Sonia Sanchez, Jessica Care Moore-Poole and Amiri Baraka,
Imhotep Gary Byrd, theater/film producer Voza Rivers and
actress Phyllis Yvonne Stickney.

Ms. Morrison was a close friend of Ellie Charles and it is a
great privilege for African Voices to bestow its award to the
beloved author.

We are deeply honored to present the award in Ellie’s name
because of the special bond they shared and the magic both
women possess. Ellie and Toni have a special way of
transforming people’s lives through their words and actions,
said African Voices publisher Carolyn A. Butts. They have
inspired us to believe that anything is possible through faith,
action and courage.

Ms. Morrison is one of the most influential writers in American
literary history. The following is a brief summary of her long
list of accomplishments.

BIOGRAPHY: TONI MORRISON

Toni Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor Emeritus in the
Council of the Humanities at Princeton University.

Ms. Morrison has degrees from Howard and Cornell Universities.
She was appointed the Robert F. Goheen Professor at Princeton
University spring 1989, a post she held until 2006. Among the
universities where she has held teaching posts are Yale, Bard
College and Rutgers. The New York State Board of Regents
appointed her to the Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities
at the State University of New York at Albany in 1984. In 1988
she was the Obert C. Tanner Lecturer at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished
Professor at Syracuse University. In 1990 she delivered the
Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Massey
Lectures at Harvard University. In 1994 she held the
International Cordorcet Chair at the Ecole Normale Superieure
and College de France.

Her eight major novels, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon,
Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise and Love have received
extensive critical acclaim. She received the National Book
Critics Award in 1978 for Song of Solomon and the 1988 Pulitzer
Prize for Beloved. Both novels were chosen as the main
selections for the Book of the Month Club in 1977 and 1987
respectively. In 2006 Beloved was chosen by the New York Times
Book Review as the best work of American fiction published in
the last quarter-century. Ms. Morrison co-authored the
children’s books Remember, the Who’s Got Game? series, The Book
of Mean People and The Big Box. Her books of essays include
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination;
the edited collection Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power:
Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of
Social Reality; and the co-edited collection Birth of a Nation
hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson Case.

Click link below for more details…
http://www.africanvoices.com/

Tribute & Dinner Fee: $100.00 per person