Culture
Letterpress Posters, Native American Jewelry Available At Kennedy Museum
< < Back to letterpress-posters-native-american-jewelry-available-kennedy-museumThe Kennedy Museum of Art will host a cash and carry event from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4.
The event offers the opportunity for museum attendees to own an original letterpress poster by Lyrics of My People exhibition artist Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., who will sign and sell the posters directly from the Kennedy Museum of Art walls for $20 each on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is a letterpress printer, papermaker and builder of artist’s books, based in Detroit. His work embodies a strong passion for retelling our collective history.
Consciously tearing down cultural boundaries, Kennedy is not afraid to stir up strong emotions and ask difficult questions in order to observe the world in previously unexplored ways.
The exhibition is instilled in two galleries. The largest gallery includes 546 poster printed with selected proverbs from the African continent that reflect on the importance of education and the power of learning. Hung in varying patters, the posters are reminiscent of colorful patches of handmade quilts.
For the smaller gallery, Kennedy printed a series of works with social justice themed quotes.
He brings awareness to current day events and attitudes by highlighting quotes by civil rights activists Rosa Louise Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy’s work gives renewed relevance to historical events such as the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965 and bombings in Birmingham, Ala.
For example, in a group of six maps, Kennedy prints “50 Bombings of black homes during the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s in Birmingham, Ala.,” highlighting names, age and date of death of six children who lost their lives during the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings on Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963.
The Kennedy Museum of Art also will host a Native American Jewelry Sale from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 4-6 and from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 7. The sale is sponsored by the Friends of the Kennedy Museum and Good Girl Jewelry at White’s Mill.