AP Lorain-born author Toni Morrison (1931-2019) is the focus of a statewide, year-long event recognizing her literary contributions. A public reading of one of her 11 novels is planned Wednesday at Youngstown State University.

Youngstown State University will mix some jazz with some “Jazz” to celebrate Ohio-born author Toni Morrison.

A community reading of Morrison’s 1992 novel “Jazz” is planned on campus on Wednesday, which would have been her 95th birthday.

The reading will run 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 2 to 3 p.m. in the lobby of DeBartolo Hall, and the event will include a performance by student musicians in YSU’s jazz studies program from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in room 2200 of Bliss Hall.

The local activities are part of the year-long statewide event “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison” to recognize the literary contributions of the Lorain-born, Nobel Prize-winning author.

“Morrison is one of America’s best, purest products we’ve ever created, and we wanted to be a part of celebrating her work as a writer from Ohio,” organizer Christopher Barzak said.

Barzak, a professor in YSU”s English and world languages department, said one of the reasons he picked “Jazz” from Morrison’s 11 novels is because it provided an opportunity to involve different academic departments at the university.

“We could do something alongside the jazz studies program at YSU, since the book is dedicated to that form of music and then have some cross disciplinary cooperation in doing the event, giving it an extra dimension,” he said.

In addition to a Nobel Prize for literature, Morrison (1931-2019) won numerous accolades during her lifetime, including a National Book Critics Circle Award for “Song of Solomon,” a Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award for “Beloved,” a Coretta Scott King Award for “Remember: The Journey to School Integration” and a Norman Mailer Prize for lifetime achievement.

“Morrison, as a writer, invented huge, wholly new structures for storytelling,” Barzak said. “I can remember reading ‘Beloved’ for the first time when I was 18 years old and about to start college and feeling like I didn’t really even understand how to read the book, because I had never come across another author that presents a story in the kinds of structures and language that she created — multiple perspectives, shifting timelines, a variety of voices that intertwine and all kind of coalescing in one work and still feeling very unified. She really opened up possibilities for how to tell stories in general.”

Barzak is one of about 15 readers signed up to participate in the event. He said it’s unlikely the reader will be able to get through the 229-page novel in the allotted time, but the event is designed for listeners to catch a portion of the work in between classes or when they have a break in their schedules.

“My goal is to have the event again on the last day of the year-long Toni Morrison celebration, and hopefully complete the reading of the book next year on the same day (Feb. 18),” Barzak said.