“The image of Toni Morrison sitting on that bench at Sullivan's, with Thomalind Polite and her daughter, exemplifying the direct connection between contemporary African-Americans and those unknown Africans who were kidnapped and shipped here 200 and 300 years ago was incredibly affecting,” said Dr. Simon Lewis, conference organizer and professor of English at the College of Charleston. “It was fantastic to have an outside vindication of the significance of what we've been attempting here,” said Lewis, who is involved with UNESCO’s international education initiative, the Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project.

Conference sessions studying aspects of Morrison’s work and modernism were held concurrently from Friday through Sunday. Fifty-nine interdisciplinary papers were presented; and session titles included “Morrison, European, and Black American Modernists,” “Narrating Slavery,” and “Modernism, Migration and Jazz.”

While most sessions examined aspects of Morrison’s work as it related to the concept of modernism, some examined broader topics like the impact of slavery in modern times. The well-attended session titled “Charleston, Race, and Re-memory,” for example, examined the historical legacy of a city marked by its connection to slavery and the challenges it’s facing in memorializing a painful collective experience.

In addition to attending scholarly sessions, conference attendees participated in a variety of special events, including an authors’ and editors’ luncheon, a boat ride, and an exhibit opening with a keynote lecture by renowned scholar Joseph Opala on Bunce Island, a British slave castle in Sierra Leone. 

The Toni Morrison Society, which boasts 600 members in 12 countries, plans to hold its next conference in Paris in 2010.

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