This week’s book arts resources included a video about letter press printmaker Amos Kennedy - Proceed and Be Bold! Amos is an interesting character. The documentary talks a bit about the rise in letter press work in general - Hatch out of Nashville has a cameo appearance. Hatch is on my places to visit.
I really enjoyed Amos’s sense of humor and frankness. His Nappy Gram project was awesome - as was his response to being questioned by the police department regarding one of his affirmative action post cards. There is a section of the film that addresses him calling himself ‘negro’ that is very informative and challenging. I respect how he confronts things head on and uses racially charged icons and stereotypes. It seems as if he’s saying our problems aren’t going to go away if we just clean up our language and iconography and ‘make nice’.
The most interesting part of the film for me was when Amos was discussing the passing away of the southern rural African American way of life. It is a rich culture that we don’t seem to pay very much attention to.
Below is the link to Proceed and Be Bold! I highly recommend it.
