Let's Read and Discuss 'Beloved' by Toni Morrison

Join me to discuss *Beloved* by Toni Morrison! ⬇️‼️READ ME‼️⬇️ **Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.** Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, *Beloved* is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison. \* Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was an author, editor, and college professor. Among many notable achievements, Morrison was the first Black woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. She played a role in bringing Black literature into the mainstream through her work at Random House. Morrison's 5th book, *Beloved*, published in 1987, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988. It is the subject of much discourse regarding its social impact and the discomfort it may cause confronting the history and legacy of slavery, Black resistance, and racial trauma (picturingblackhistory.org). *Beloved* and much of Morrison's work has been challenged and banned in schools. This novel was inspired by the real-life story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who tried to escape with her family in 1856. As Picturing Black History notes, Margaret and her family fled a Kentucky plantation one night in January 1856, crossing the Ohio River into Cincinnati. Although Ohio was a free state, the Garners were pursued and caught under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Knowing she and her family would be enslaved again, she killed her 2-year-old daughter Mary and tried to kill the rest of her children before she was caught. Margaret had said she would rather her children "go home to God than back to slavery". Instead of being charged with murder, she was charged with destruction of property and forced back into slavery (picturingblackhistory.org). Please take a look at the link in the sources and further reading for more information and explanation. Her first novel, published in 1970, *The Bluest Eye*, was inspired by a short story about a Black girl who wanted blue eyes. *Song of Solomon* brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award (womenofthehall.com). Toni Morrison is the author of 11 novels and 3 essay collections. Sources and further reading: https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/toni-morrison/ https://picturingblackhistory.org/toni-morrisons-beloved/ https://sites.prh.com/toni-morrison \* Content warnings: racism, violence, death, child loss, abuse \* 📅: Saturday, August 29th ⏰: 11 AM - 1 PM 📍: Qahwah House, 2869 Broadway Please RSVP only if you plan to come, and if your plans change, please update your RSVP! As this group grows, we want to make sure we can plan accordingly to provide a good experience for everyone.