By Logan Monteleone
Outgoing News Editor
Following a prompt in an African American literature class, senior Sheri Swayne was writing a poem exploring her experiences and struggles as a woman of mixed racial identity. When she looked up from the page, she met eye-to-eye with a portrait of an older white man hanging in a classroom in Smith Hall.
“I’m writing a poem and I’m wondering, ‘Who has the College honored that hasn’t really been made visible?’” Swayne said.
Toni Morrison is the first writer who came to mind, Swayne said. Locking eyes with Morrison would have meant something different in that moment, and the thought inspired Swayne to start working on a project to honor Morrison’s legacy on Washington College’s campus.
Morrison, a Nobel-prize winning novelist and an acclaimed editor from Lorrain, Ohio, who lived from 1931 to 2019, is known for work that “explores the plurality of Black narratives, particularly through the eyes of Black women and girls, in a stunningly eloquent and versatile literary voice,” according to The Dig at Howard University. Morrison visited Chestertown and gave a reaidng at the Rose O’Neill Literary House on March 27, 1987.
Reflecting on the portraits and statues on campus that commemorate the largely white, older, male donors who have left an impact on the College, Swayne decided that she wanted to honor figures who have left an impact on the College who better reflect Swayne’s identity and the identity of other young writers of color.
“I realized that it was really important to me who I saw honored in the spaces that I was learning to be myself, and the method that I was using to explore myself was writing,” Swayne said.
Swayne, an English major and creative writing minor, said the Rose O’Neill Literary House offers the most diverse representation of important figures to campus in the portraits and posters of visiting writers hanging on the walls. Morrison’s portrait is among them.
“I wanted to make a project to honor Toni Morrison and then by extension people and writers of color,” Swayne said.
Swayne said specific representation for a writer of a mixed racial identity is important to her personally, but also a reflection of a public effort to promote visibility and inclusivity of diverse racial identities on campus. A project that is both public and personal, Swayne wrote about Morrison’s 1970 novel “The Bluest Eye” for her Senior Capstone Experience.
In the past few months, Swayne has written and sent out a survey gauging interest and attempting to generate ideas for the form a tribute should take. The survey asks participants about various options including a portrait, a statue, a public art project, and a living memorial to honor Morrison. Of the approximately 40 responses received, Swayne said the most popular ideas from the survey have been a permanent art representation of Morrison, though there is also interest in an annual in-person event commemorating Morrison’s legacy.
“Considering that the tribute is going to be placed in a community setting, it can’t just be me which decides the format,” Swayne said when asked what direction she envisions the project taking.
Swayne has also presented her ideas to English classrooms and at Starr Center events.
Jaelon T. Moaney, the Starr Center’s deputy director, and Pat Nugent, the Thomas V. Mike Miller Director of Civic Engagement Swayne’s efforts in organizing a tribute into a paid internship that recognizes and encourages her work.
“Overwhelmingly, this internship aimed to raise awareness and refamiliarize Washington College with the diverse beacons who have influenced the learning environment,” Moaney said. “In the future, a larger sample size will afford credibility towards any specific form(s) of tribute and its location,” Moaney said.
Moaney said the Starr Center is “eager for thought partnership to grow and reflect a wider array of the campus community” and to continue building memory around Morrison’s 1987 visit to the Eastern Shore.
This past Wednesday, Swayne travelled to the archives at Princeton University with the Starr Center, where Morrison taught, to visit Morrison’s original manuscripts, diaries, notebooks, photos, broadsides, and other materials to get inspiration for the project.
Though Swayne will graduate this May, she already has plans to help the project succeed after she leaves campus. Swayne has gathered an interest group through an online survey, and the group met late last month to discuss ideas and outline plans for events and tasks related to the project in the future.
Swayne has focused on engaging underclassmen in the project, including freshman Jayla Smith, an intern at the Starr Center. The mission of the project is both personal and public for Smith, too.
“Considering the demographics of the school, opening up the spaces on campus to include and celebrate the contributions of people, especially women, of color allows for the betterment of the learning space for all students,” Smith said. “For students of color like me, it’s a feeling that’s honestly hard to describe. Seeing people who you have a historical and, on a wide scale, ancestral connection to be celebrated, acknowledged, and researched in a space where you learn and work . . . gives you the strength and the courage to continue on bringing your own unique cultural perspectives and understandings to spaces of learning.”
Celebrating diversity is important for everyone, Smith said, as even students who do not belong to a minority identity can “look at things from a different perspective and participate in a cultural exchange” that promotes learning.
Though the form the tribute will take is still undecided, Smith said increasing community engagement with the project is the first step.
“I want to see this project expand to where more people can officially join, offer recommendations, do research, and interact with the campus and local community to build more support and engagement with Toni Morrison, as well as more authors and even artists of color.”
Smith plans to stick with the project throughout her time at the College, and encourages any other students or WC community members who would like to participate to reach out to the Starr Center.
Photo caption: Senior Sheri Swayne presented a trifold including information and ideas for a tribute project honoring the legacy of the late writer Toni Morisson, to celebrate and represent the accomplishments of writers of color connected to Washington College.
Photo provided by Sheri Swayne