This guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division, highlights posters that complement the New York Poster House exhibition “The Letterpress Posters of Amos Kennedy” (October 8, 2020–January 3, 2021), curated by Angelina Lippert.
Detroit-based letterpress artist Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. wields wood type and ink in ways that can suggest poetry, declamation, singing, or conversation in a room where the volume rises and falls and voices overlap. While some of Kennedy’s artworks are stark and simple, he is known for his extraordinary technique of layering text, sometimes punctuated with images, in multicolor letterpress poster prints featuring quotes by thinkers of all kinds. The artist explains: “I have always been fascinated with proverbs. Because proverbs are these little jewels of wisdom, normally, in 10 words or less, and for every proverb, there’s a proverb that counters it. So, it really becomes judgmental for you to figure out which one…I like aphorisms, and there are quotations that I like by people that I want to put out there.”
![The Only Tired I Was, Was Tired of Giving In. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [ca. 2018]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635246/](http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2020/11/APK66730r.jpg)
The Only Tired I Was, Was Tired of Giving In. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [ca. 2018]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635246/
In the current Library of Congress collection of nearly 250 Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. letterpress prints, posters, and ephemera created between 2003 and 2020, about 30 feature quotes by civil rights activist and pioneer Rosa Louise Parks. Shortly after Parks’ death in 2005, Kennedy embarked on a series of prints that highlight the power, humanity, and determination in her voice.
![I Was Just Trying to Let Them Know How I Felt About Being Treated as a Human Being, Rosa Louise Parks. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [ca. 2012]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014645243/](http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2020/11/APK37500r.jpg)
I Was Just Trying to Let Them Know How I Felt About Being Treated as a Human Being — Rosa Louise Parks. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [ca. 2012]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014645243/
![You Must Never Be Fearful About What You Are Doing When It Is Right. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [ca. 2018]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635247/](http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2020/11/APK66731r.jpg)
You Must Never Be Fearful About What You Are Doing When It Is Right. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [ca. 2018]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635247/
![Racism Is Still With Us, but It Is up to Us to Prepare Our Children for What They Have to Meet and Hopefully We Shall Overcome. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [2013]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018647571/](http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2020/11/APK55790r.jpg)
Racism Is Still With Us, but It Is up to Us to Prepare Our Children for What They Have to Meet and Hopefully We Shall Overcome — Rosa Louise Parks. Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [2013]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018647571/
![Rosa Louise Parks, 1913-2005 (NO). Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [between 2005 and 2012]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635244/](http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2020/11/APK66735r.jpg)
Rosa Louise Parks, 1913-2005 (NO). Letterpress poster by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. [between 2005 and 2012]. Reproduced by permission. //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635244/
In selecting recent works for their collection, curator Angelina Lippert said she focused on “…posters that highlighted events around the country, but predominantly events in the rural South because those are the types of events that never make it into the history books.”
Learn More
- You can see more of Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.’s Rosa Parks series prints online, along with further selected works in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
- Tour recent exhibitions featuring his work:
- The Letterpress Posters of Amos Kennedy (Poster House, New York City, October 8, 2020–January 3, 2021).
- Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words (Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Opened December 5, 2019)
- Art in Action: Herblock and Fellow Artists Respond to Their Times (Library of Congress, Washington, DC, January 31–August 17, 2019), with Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.’s related gallery talk.
- Watch Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. in action in the feature film, Proceed and Be Bold! Full Feature Length Documentary about Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. (Laura Zinger/20KFilms, 2012).
- Reminisce with us about an exciting 2018 collaboration with Poster House that challenged viewers to animate vintage posters from the Library’s collection: Poster Parade: Free to Use–and Animate! and, showing some of the results of the competition, Posters on the Move.
December 1, 2020 at 6:14 pm
Great to see this attention given to Amos’s fine work as a printer and community activist. Just to add to your ‘learn more’ list, a short monograph I wrote about Amos’s work is posted on Academia’s web site as a PDF:
https://www.academia.edu/11018261/Print_Amos_Kennedy_Jr_and_the_Fine_Art_of_Rabblerousery
December 2, 2020 at 4:58 pm
Thank you for the great examples, and discussion of the layering effect.
December 8, 2020 at 1:40 pm
This is a lovely post on Kennedy’s life and works, and a powerful introduction to letterpress printing. Thank you also for the link to “Proceed and Be Bold,” the full-length documentary by Laura Zinger, and for the information on the Poster House exhibition. Well done!
December 18, 2020 at 2:26 pm
Sending appreciation for all your kind, thoughtful comments and to Andrew for sharing the link to his article which I learned from and enjoyed–also appreciating the word/concept “rabblerousery” in relation to Amos’s work and ethos.