News about Toni Morrison

Eboni K. Williams has announced the arrival of her first child, a daughter named Liberty Alexandria Williams.  The child, who was conceived via sperm donor and in vitro fertilization, was born in August 2024 in New York City, her mother shared. Eboni, a former star on The Real Housewives Of New York City, shared precious snaps of the newborn as she introduced her daughter to the world.

Novelist Kate Mosse on the liberation of owning just one type of shoe: platform brothel creepers that have walked her through life's highs and lows

A sign in the Idaho Falls Public Library, with a huge stop symbol, informed patrons they would need to show photo ID if they were under 30. Children could only enter if they had an unrestricted library card signifying their parents were happy with them browsing alone, or be accompanied by a parent who 'must sign an affidavit every time you come to the library'. 'Idaho: where a 13 year old is forced to carry out pregnancy but can't go to the library,' one critic wrote.

This was the headline, four months before Meghan married Harry: 'Why I'm proud to be a Meghanomaniac…we need some Markle sparkle!' I said about Harry: 'My, has he gone up in our estimation! He has swollen in stature, eclipsed even his brother!, to become one half of a super couple we hope will eclipse even George and Amal.' On the wedding day, I said in the Mail: '"You look amazing." So mouthed Harry as he looked up to drink in his bride. He was echoing what every woman in the land was yelling at the screen as Meghan emerged from her Rolls-Royce. The dress is simple: who needs embellishment when you have that face?' Meghan and Harry celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary today, and boy how times and public opinion have changed! But The Royal Family, sans Catherine, has never looked so old, tired and, yes, frankly boring, despite Camilla doing her stoic, uncomplaining best. These satellite royals are, literally, a punch line. Enlisting Beatrice to inject some glamour and youth will not help. We're not interested! Charles and William, be the bigger men. Give Harry and Meghan the best anniversary gift they could imagine. Welcome the Firm's biggest assets back into the fold.

Pink has confirmed that she will be returning to Europe next year, announcing a new set of dates for her Summer Carnival World Tour. The singer, 44, started the tour in the United Kingdom in June and then moved to North America this week with the last date in Arlington, Texas. After her new album, which began on October 12 and ended on November 28, she began her ninth tour simultaneously, the Trustfall Tour.

Pink has joined Pen America, a pro-independence group for free expression, to give away 2,000 banned books at her concerts in South Florida. The So What songstress has taken to the ring to protest the controversy surrounding certain books being banned from Floridian libraries and classrooms. According to the BBC, literature that includes mentions of sexuality, gender identity, and race is being barred from classrooms in the state. Authorities in Florida insist they are not banning books but rather blocking offensive and harmful information.

Scobie revealed that one of the chapters in his book about the royal family will face the British press on X, formerly known as Twitter. According to the photograph shared by the biographer, the book, which will be published on November 21th, contains a chapter titled 'A Dangerous Game: Royals and the Media.' Scobie referred to world renowned author Toni Morrison and revealed that writing this book was the most difficult venture he had ever attempted.

According to the Swedish Academy, Norwegian author Jon Fosse has been named for 'his innovative plays and prose, which give voice to the unsayable." Mats Malm, the academy's permanent secretary, revealed the award on Thursday in Stockholm.

After a Louisiana lawmaker read explicit passages out loud during a Senate hearing, the author of the graphic novel 'Gender Queer' has said that it is not'recommend for kids.' Despite being the most challenged book in US schools and libraries for two years in a row, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, denied that the pro-LGBTQ comic book is meant for kids. Senator John Kennedy, 71, read aloud from Gender Queer at the hearing because it is now permitted in Illinois schools. He was making his argument in the midst of a raging Republican fight to keep inappropriate subject matter out of the reach of young children in public schools and libraries.

Many states have passed legislation committing librarians and book vendors to years in prison if they have 'obscene' titles to minors. At least five states have been passed and nine others are pending, allowing for the criminal conviction of school and library workers involved. Librarians had been banned from suing for obscene materials in almost every state, but recently, an increase in suspicion and indignation over some books in schools and libraries has resulted in legislation being changed.

Hundreds of books are being challenged by schools around the state by a conservative Utah law passed in 2022 to challenge hundreds of titles that parents, students, instructors, and board members will contest. On December 11, however, a complaint was lodged against the religious text, marking one of the 81 calls for Davis School District's investigation into the removal of the text. Toni Morrison's DSD has developed an eight-page rule to guide the selection and destruction of papers across its 92 schools. The district has also banned 33 other books as a result of the appeal and delayed 30 after reviewing them. The book must violate the definition of indecent public displays as required by the legislation, which also includes a discussion of illicit sex or sexual immorality.

Alison Hair, a left-overhead author, was barred from school board meetings after reading passages from a sexually explicit book in her son's school library. Mama Bears, the school's parent rights group, later sued the school for breaching the First Amendment, resulting in a contentious lawsuit involving x-rated books being sold in the school district. The corporation argued that their First Amendment rights were in breach, and the board later decided to pay the substantial attorney fees and allow the members to attend the meetings.

Noviolet Bulawayo is reading Innards by Magogodi oaMphela Makhene, which was set in apartheid South Africa. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude will bring her to a desert island.

A veteran librarian in western Michigan has seen her place of work as a torch for a group of radical conservatives trying to outlaw books that they believe promote pornography or LGBTQ causes. Following her appearance at a library board meeting, Jean Reicher, who became a librarian at Patmos Library in the Jamestown Township two and a half years ago, went viral in December 2022.

After a local mom slammed the school for'exposing children to pedophilia,' adding that the district's schools have become "Marxist indoctrination camps," a Florida county has withdrawn a book by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison from its classrooms. Michelle Stille, a teacher at a Chrisian school in the area, has blasted the Pinellas County school board for exposing children to 'explicit descriptions of illicit conduct.'

A book describing 9/11 first responders as "not human" and "menaces" was once offered by the military's equity chief. This latest revelation comes as the Pentagon started an investigation into Kelisa Wing's tweets, in which she used terms such as 'Karen' and 'CAUdacity' to describe white people. Wing recommended the 2015 book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates while representing the Pentagon on two occasions, according to Fox News. Wing has been with the DoD for 16 years and was promoted to DEI chief in December 2021. She was described as being "in every facet of DoDEA, from curriculum and assessment to recruiting and professional development," according to a press release announcing her appointment in the Department of Defense's Education Activity section in December 2021. Wing, a US Army veteran, is responsible in part for 'planning, directing, coordinating, and coordinating preschool education for children of Department of Defense service members who otherwise would not have access to high-quality public education.' Coates wrote about how to tell the difference between the police officer who shot and killed Prince Jones in Maryland in September 2000 and others who rushed toward the fires on 9/11. The first responders,' Coates, were not human to me. They were black, white, or whatever; they were natural disasters; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, and without exception.'

Mavi asserts firmly that "I don't believe in a singular genius." "Anything that you think is exceptional about me is a result of my exploration and curation of outside influences, outside teachers, and outsiders." In most interviews, the Charlotte-based independent rapper has a smoky aura, with most claiming he knows who has the highest reputation. Mavi is surprisingly modest when speaking about himself while on Zoom with MTV News to address Laughing So Hard It Hurts. His enthusiasm only increased when talking to Toni Morrison and Sun Ra, and he's especially keen to share the many books he's reading and recite quotations from his favorite authors.

According to the researchers, politicians and newly formed parent's organizations are pressuring schools to remove texts from classrooms, which is similar to the anti-Communist McCarthy period and moral purges of the early 1980s. The banned books were mainly young adult fiction, with some of them dealing with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer protagonists, as well as those focused on race and identity. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, the most commonly banned book, was cut by 41 school districts. It traces the author's 'journey of self-identity' and "what it means to be nonbinary and asexual."

After outrage from tense Jewish organisations when the book was scheduled to be pulled last week, a Texas school district recalled Anne Frank's graphic novel. Following a tumultuous board meeting on Monday where one parent read aloud the book as major Jewish American organizations opposed the ban, Anne Frank's Diary's graphic version has returned to the Keller Independent School District in Tarrant County. During the school year, staff at the Texas school district were previously ordered to delete all books parents had previously protested during the school year.

A North Texas school district is now reviewing a list of books that have been requested by parents to delete from its libraries, including "Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaption" and all Bible versions, due to 'pornographic information.' During a March school board meeting, one parent said, 'We are fed up with pornographic materials that are still in our libraries that are open to children.' The Keller Independent School District has suspended 41 books that have been disputed, according to the district's principals and librarians, who had reported it by email.

BEN OKRI: Any intelligent individual should not be shocked but outraged at the book Salman Rushdie attack. He had up to 15 wounds, but all knife stabs into the freedom of imagination and expression that keeps us human. Salman had bravely begun living as a normal civilian in the world after years of living as a fugitive. He could write books, find love and - seemingly - travel freely