University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Amos Kennedy Collection

The Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Collection in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign contains artists’ books, postcards, and posters. Kennedy is a letterpress printer, papermaker, book artist, and teacher who currently lives and works in York, Alabama. He was the first artist in residence at The Coleman Center for Arts and Culture, an organization founded in 1985 to further the arts in York. Through his strong graphics and bold typography, Kennedy addresses passionately issues of race, freedom, and equality, often incorporating proverbs and tales of the Kuba and Yoruba people of Africa, as well as the work of African-American poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar.