Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.
American, b. 1950; MFA 1998
Lives and works in Detroit, Michigan
Mask, 2000
Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, text by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.
Letterpress and relief prints on handmade abaca paper
A.P. Kennedy, Jr., Bloomington, Indiana
Edition unknown
This large-format book, with bold relief prints of African masks, includes the late-nineteenth-century poem We Wear the Mask by African American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar:
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,–
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Mask begins with Kennedy’s text: “put the message in the hands of the people & move on!” and ends with: “we who believe in freedom cannot rest!” When turning pages of this book, the crinkling sounds of the handmade paper add to its striking quality. Kennedy’s extensive work as a printer includes posters, broadsides, postcards and “nappygrams” that often include social and political commentary.
African Proverbs from Nigeria, 1992
Letterpress, pen and ink, and 24 carat gold leaf and gouache paint on Amate paper, bound with leather and bead
Jubilee Press, Oak Park, Illinois
Edition of 100
Printer and book builder Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. grew up in Louisiana. His father was a professor at historically black colleges, and his mother was a housewife who later became a professor herself. Kennedy earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Grambling State University, after which he spent 18 months in Liberia with the Peace Corps. He landed a job as a systems programmer for IBM in Maryland and worked for AT&T in Chicago. For three years, he studied calligraphy, taking classes with Donald Jackson and Sheila Waters. After a visit to Colonial Williamsburg with his two sons, Kennedy became interested in letterpress printing and took courses with Pam Barrie at Artists Book Works. He acquired his first press for the cost of moving it, and then another printer gave him four cabinets of type. “That was an enormous gift,” Kennedy says. “And that’s why I said that this universe had just opened up to say, ‘Here is your path.’” After a couple of years printing in his own shop, Kennedy decided to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study bookmaking with Walter Hamady. Kennedy also worked with instructors Phil Hamilton and Jim Escalante and began to collaborate with Caren Heft. Kennedy received his MFA in 1998, and he has printed artists’ books and posters dealing with social justice issues under the imprints Jubilee Press, Kennedy & Sons Fine Printers, and Kennedy Prints!.
