The U.S. Postal Service recently celebrated the life and legacy of author Toni Morrison (1931–2019), whose artfully crafted novels explored the diverse voices of African Americans, in a first-day-of-issue ceremony at Princeton University.
“One of the goals of our stamp programme is to raise awareness and celebrate the people who represent the very best of our nation,” said Pritha Mehra, USPS chief information officer and executive vice president, who served as the dedicating official. “It’s a privilege to represent the 650,000 men and women of the Postal Service, as we honour Toni Morrison with one more tribute — our new stamp that will be seen by millions and forever remind us of the power of her words and the ideas she brought to the world.”
“It was a privilege to photograph Morrison, an amazing author who contributed so much to the world through her works,” said Deborah Feingold, whose portrait of her appears on the stamp.
“However, it is an absolute honour to know that the same photograph capturing a moment in time is now the subject of a Forever stamp. I am delighted that my photograph was used as a source to design the stamp and to participate in today’s unveiling and celebration.”
A letter of tribute from former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama was read, and a video tribute from Oprah Winfrey was played during the ceremony.
The stamp features Feingold’s photograph of Toni Morrison against a bright yellow background. Ethel Kessler, a USPS art director, designed the stamp.
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, where she would later recall growing up in a family filled with storytelling and song. After graduating from high school in 1949, she enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and began using the name Toni, a reference to Anthony, the saint whose name she took when she was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church at age 12. After graduating from Howard, she earned a master’s degree in English at Cornell University and later taught English at Texas Southern University and at Howard.
In 1965, she began working as a textbook editor in upstate New York. In 1968, she was promoted and moved to New York City to become the first African American woman senior editor at Random House, where she prioritised the publication of books by African American authors.
Morrison published her first novel in 1970 while working full-time as an editor and raising two children. She wanted to see stories about African Americans in fiction that had never been told before.”The Bluest Eye” is an important look into the life of an African American girl who is 11 years old and has internalised negative stereotypes about her race.”The Bluest Eye” is a classic book that is taught in high school and college literature classes. It is about how society treats and ignores African American girls.
Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the first African-American woman to get this honour. Her Nobel lecture is remembered for its celebration of the power of language. Three years later, she received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Her poignant acceptance speech, “The Dancing Mind,” addressed the relationship between writers and readers and the need for both to defend authors’ freedom of expression.
Toni Morrison died in New York City on August 5, 2019, at the age of 88.
The Toni Morrison Forever stamp is sold in panes of 20. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtag #ToniMorrisonStamp.
Source: Black PR Wire
