Special Events!

The National Book Festival in Washington D.C., September 24, 25, 2011

An Invitation to the Sixth Bench by the Road Placement in recognition of the racial integration of the George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium, one of the first theaters in Washington D.C. to end racial discrimination. Time: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.

Call for Papers **New Extended Deadline**   Toni Morrison's Beloved and A Mercy: New Critical Essays

Language Matters is a national educational and service initiative of the Toni Morrison Society. Established in 2001, it is designed to provide opportunities for interactive dialogue among school teachers and between teachers and scholars, and to create appropriate instructional materials for those teaching imaginative literature, especially the novels of Toni Morrison in secondary school classrooms. Language Matters, coordinated by the Project on the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas, is a three-time NEH grant recipient.

Language Matters I: Reading and Teaching Toni Morrison

September 2003–May 2004 at Cardozo High School in Washington, DC. Cardozo High School is the birthplace of Language Matters.

Cardozo has been in the forefront of the Language Matters initiative. Its students have been the most consistent young readers of Morrison's texts. Cardozo was the first school in the nation to do a school–wide reading of The Bluest Eye, and as the first high school to read A Mercy, they were featured in the Washington Post. At Cardozo, the LM tradition continues.

View the video from the Washington Post

View Photo Gallery

Language Matters II: Reading and Teaching Toni Morrison

July 9-17, 2005, in conjunction with the Fourth Biennial Conference, "Toni Morrison & Sites of Memory," July 14-17, 2005 at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.

Language Matters III: Talking Back to Morrison's Texts: From Reader to Writer

July 24–27, 2008, in conjunction with the 5th Biennial Conference in Charleston, South Carolina.

Language Matters IV: Reading and Teaching Toni Morrison in Translation

November 4–7, 2010, in conjunction with the Sixth Biennial Conference, "Toni Morrison and the Circuits of the Imagination/Toni Morrison et les Circuits de l'Imaginaire," in Paris.

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