Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

Designer, Printer

Amos Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. (born 1948) was working a corporate job for AT&T when, at the age of 40, he discovered the art of letterpress printing on a tour of Colonial Williamsburg. Kennedy then devoted himself to the craft, earning an MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and teaching at Indiana University. He now operates Kennedy Prints!, a communal letterpress center in Detroit. Borrowing words from social justice heroes Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and others, Kennedy layers bold statements on race, capitalism, history, and politics in exuberant, colorful, and one-of-a-kind posters. Kennedy has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, and The Economist, and his work has been exhibited by the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and other institutions throughout the US. He was the subject of a 2012 feature-length documentary, Proceed and Be Bold!