YOU CAN’T DO
RIGHT
wring
.
MID YOU CANT DO
W B 0 №
RIGHT!
Ifc.IMvtWfcM
TIRED OF BEING
KARRASSED
BY YOUR STUPID PARENTS?
ACT NOW!
MOVE OUT. GET A JOB
PAY YOUR OWN BILLS.
WHILE YOU
STIL
KNOW EVERYTHING
Kennedy has been
known to skip with
glee when he finds a
new typeface or a press.
‘My beloved calls it my
porn,” he says.
an English literature student
at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. She was
working in the Rare Book and
Special Collections Library when
she asked head librarian Barbara
Jones about the most interest-
ing book in the collection.
Zinger thought Jones might
pull out the book of Genesis
printed on a Gutenberg press,
but she chose two of Kennedy’s:
his snake necklace - a charm
book of African proverbs meant
to be worn around the neck,
each page cut in the shape of a
snake for wisdom- and a whip-
ping stick that he had constructed
out of shredded Bible pages.
“I was floored,” Zinger says.
“I’d never seen anything like
either of these ‘books’ before.”
She was so impressed that she
asked Jones to arrange a meet-
ing with Kennedy for her. The
two met and kept in touch for
seven years, before she asked
hint if he would be the subject
of a documentary.
Kennedy obliged, and Zinger,
owner of 20K Films, directed
and produced
Proceed and Be
Bold!
in
2008. The documen-
tary, which has won critical
acclaim, continues to introduce
people to Kennedy and his art.
“I was told years ago that
everything you do is political,”
Kennedy says, “and so my art
is really a political statement.
And the story of my art, when
someone can actually cipher it
out, is a statement of what I
envision the world to be.
“One is that every piece is
unique because every individu-
al is unique. There is no such
thing as a mistake. There are
just happy coincidences. This is
what happened at the moment
of creation.”
The same can be said of
Kennedy.
+
kennedyprints.com
Monique Fields is a folk-art lover
and writer in Alabama.
Below: Kennedy made a
set of four books
(No.
/,
shown) for each day of a
2001 Art Libraries Society
of North America conference.
i
m
1
1
ain't a
artist!
1
BULK
BOOKS
or tne glory of my peoples!
068 american craft dec/jani2
