YOUNGSTOWN Youngstown State University (YSU) hit all the right notes during an all-day community reading of Toni Morrison's novel, "Jazz," on Tuesday to discuss the author's impact and literary legacy. 

As a part of the "Beloved. Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison" yearlong, statewide commemoration of the Ohio author's life and work, the YSU's Poetry Center and Club, as well as the Student Literary Arts Association, Jazz Studies Program and Department of English and World Languages, hosted the event.

The public reading began Tuesday morning, with a live jazz performance from Dana School of Music student musicians around lunch before the reading continued at 2 p.m. in the DeBartolo Hall lobby.

"Morrison is one of America's most important writers. She passed away several years back. She was a Pulitzer prize winner and the first Black woman to win a Nobel prize for literature," Christopher Barzak, YSU professor of English and Creative Writing, said.  "We are very proud of her in this state; she grew up in Lorain, not too far from here, so, a northeastern Ohio girl."

Morrison also wrote books such as Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye. She died in 2019.

The event was free to the public.