Dear colleagues,

For those in southern CA, please come visit Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair at the MOCA Geffen in downtown LA. For the fourth year, I have curated a program of events for the fair. We call it The Classroom and it features about 25 talks, performances and conversations by contemporary artists, designers and independent publishers throughout the course of the fair, Feb. 24-26th. Also, the keynote talk will feature artist and art worker AA Bronson, member of General Idea, co-founder of the important bookstore Art Metropole in Toronto and AA was also recently the director at Printed Matter in New York, as well as being an internationally recognized artist. His talk for the fair is entitled My Life in Books. The schedule for the Classroom and other programs is here: http://laartbookfair.net/events/

In other news, MoMA Library is proud to host an exhibition of printed materials by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. One part of the show is a series of letterpress posters that depict quotes by Rosa Parks and another part of the show is a set of fans that bear the names of individuals killed while working for civil rights from 1946 - 1968. Since white supremacist violence is very much still with us in the United States, this seemed like a very relevant work to put on public display. The show opened in early January and is up through March 5th. For those in New York, please come check it out at the Cullman Education and Research Center at MoMA at 4 W. 54th St. For those who can't make it, you can view a slideshow of the exhibition online on the exhibition page here: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3650?locale=en

here's the text describing the show:

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.: Quotations of Rosa Louise Parks and Church Fans
Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., describes himself as a “humble Negro printer.” Letterpress posters are Kennedy’s primary medium, and he often uses them as a means to distribute messages and aphorisms related to social justice issues, especially the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. In the poster series Quotations of Rosa Louise Parks, which he has produced over the last decade, Kennedy isolates statements by Parks that reflect her motivations and sensibility as a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly in her iconic role fighting against bus segregation in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. The posters graphically transmit the voice of this American hero and pay homage to her acts of resistance. Kennedy’s Church Fans bear the names of 134 individuals killed while working for civil rights in the United States from 1946 to 1968. Printing the names on fans similar to those distributed in Southern churches during a hot summer service, Kennedy memorializes and venerates the individuals who sacrificed their lives in the fight against racial segregation, disenfranchisement, and economic inequality in this country.

Organized by David Senior, Senior Bibliographer, The Museum of Modern Art Library.

best, David

David Senior
Senior Bibliographer
Museum of Modern Art Library
11 W. 53rd St.
New York, NY 10019
212-708-9863