Client: Broadside Lotus Press

Role: Art Direction, Design, Illustration

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Broad Sympathies in a Narrow World: The Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois by Dr. Sandra Staton-Taiwo is a collection of poetic reflections on the public and private lives of an American intellectual giant. This book of poems comments on Du Bois’ giant legacy as a political leader, while also bringing his family struggles into view as well. Staton-Taiwo’s poems celebrate the greatness of Du Bois’s political vision and engagement while intuiting the unhappy lives of the women who lived in his shadow. The book was the winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award 2018, presented by Broadside Lotus Press. Broadside Lotus Press is a small Detroit press and is the oldest continuing publisher of African American poetry since 1965. They originally published most of the best-known contemporary African American poets.

 

Working with Dr. Gloria Aneb House from Broadside Lotus Press, I was tasked to create a cover for the book that alluded to the air of distant history felt in Staton-Taiwo’s collection of poems. The kente cloth illustration at the bottom of the cover represents Du Bois's work that greatly impacted the lives of African Americans across the country, while the colors in the cloth symbolize the important women in his life.