Center for the literary arts in New York State
TONI MORRISON CELEBRATION
Toni Morrison Exhibit Unveiling
10 a.m. Friday, February 13, 2026
We will unveil a new exhibit to honor Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison (1931-2019), who taught at the University at Albany in the English Department from 1984 to 1989. The author of many classic works of literature, she wrote her masterpiece, Beloved (1987), while at UAlbany. The exhibit features the writing desk and chair she used during her tenure here.
In the 1980s, Morrison shared office space and collaborated frequently with Writers Institute founder William Kennedy. She addressed a packed audience at the University at Albany in 1984, just the second featured writer in the Institute's history. The news of her Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1988 came with a phone call to the Institute's office.
Morrison organized the Institute's “The Birth of Black Cinema” three-day symposium at Page Hall in 1988 that included director Spike Lee. She also brought to campus Ralph Ellison, acclaimed author of The Invisible Man, as well as Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. Morrison wrote “Dreaming Emmett,” a drama about Emmett Till, and the Writers Institute co-sponsored its premiere at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany in 1986.
Read more about Toni Morrison's connection with the NYS Writers Institute and UAlbany
Toni Morrison, 1998. From Enoch Pratt Library © John Mathew Smith
More events at UAlbany on Friday, February 13
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Roundtable: Curating Black History
Autumn Womack and Dorothy Berry
11 a.m. Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West Addition
Autumn Womack, a professor at Princeton University, is the recent curator of the Princeton exhibit, “Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory,” and author of The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880-1930 (2022), winner of the 2022 the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Prize, and shortlisted for the Modernist Studies Association’s First Book Prize.
Dorothy Berry, archivist and writer, is the author of The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities (2025). Featured at many cultural heritage institutions, her curatorial work is notable for implementing creative methods to make archival collections related to Black life more accessible and available, and for imagining new strategies for showcasing historical materials.
Cosponsored by the UAlbany English Department, University Auxiliary Services (UAS), the College of Arts & Sciences, and the NYS Writers Institute
Noon to 3 p.m.
University at Albany
Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany NY 12222
Join us in celebrating Frederick Douglass’s birthday and the ongoing work of writing and preserving Black history. NOTE: All participants need to bring a laptop or tablet.
The Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon -- douglassday.org -- is a national, crowdsourced transcription event to create new and free materials to learn Black history and enjoy a birthday cake honoring Frederick Douglass.
No pre-knowledge of history or transcription is required. Come and go anytime during the transcription event.
