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Lead Graffiti

120 A Sandy Drive, Sandy Brae Industrial Park
Newark DE 19711
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a letterpress lab of sorts

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Lead Graffiti

  • about
    • intro
    • bios
    • 12 DNA projects
    • callouts
    • our lab
    • contact
  • calendar
  • store
    • subscriptions
    • workshops
    • fine press books
    • broadsides & posters
    • cards
    • Cinderella stamps
    • Blank books by Lead Graffiti
    • Blank books by Anne Hessel
    • Tour de Lead Graffiti 2011-15
    • letterpress things for sale
    • New Products
  • workshops
    • STUDIO SUBSCRIPTIONS
    • TECHNICAL LETTERPRESS
    • . . basic type composition
    • . . vandercook
    • . . iron hand press
    • . . floor-model platens
    • . . week-long letterpress
    • CREATIVE LETTERPRESS explained
    • . . meander book online
    • . . werkman druksels
    • . . quotable broadside
    • . . holiday card
    • press rental
    • BOOKMAKING explained
    • . . bookmaking basics
    • . . 6-pocket accordion
    • . . one day one book
    • . . coptic stitch
    • . . clamshell
    • . . paste paper
    • . . bookmaking bonanza
  • blog
  • search

BLM #2 : Presenting history when you can

June 14, 2020 Ray Nichols
harlem-stamps-2000.jpg

On a recent Instagram post, we mentioned a commitment of Lead Graffiti to further the cause of black and brown members of our community and to call out instances when the opposite was occurring.

On May 21, 2020, the USPS issued a new and quite beautiful set of stamps celebrating four people representing the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

  • Alain Locke, writer, philosopher, educator, and arts advocate;

  • Nella Larsen, novelist;

  • Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, bibliophile and historian; and

  • Anne Spencer, poet.

Quoting the USPS website, "This issuance celebrates one of the great artistic and literary movements in American history, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, which firmly established African Americans as a vital force in literature and the arts." The above details about the personalities were also on the website.

The print run was 16,000,000 stamps, and there would have been 800,000 sheets sold to the public potentially conveying a sense of support or supplying information that might be useful. Those publishing details were found at about.usps.com.

How many of us would benefit from knowing more about this historically significant moment? African American kids? Adults. White supremacists? Teachers? Protesters? Government officials?

But, as you can see from the image, the back is blank. The sheet of stamps contains no information about four people that deserve a United States stamp. No subjects. No history. No accomplishments.

Looking back at many stamp sheets I own (a couple of dozen), most are blank. The back on the sheet highlighting the "repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766, (shown below) includes significant text explaining its history.

repeal-of-stamp-act-explanation.jpg

We find it absurd that on the sheet of stamps, there is no effort to use the stamps to help educate the public about the individual's accomplishments. Honestly, if the subject is worth a stamp, it is worth an explanation.

And imagine, if you were in charge of this sheet, who could you hire to write the Harlem renaissance stories?

It just seems like it was a wasted opportunity.

← Bi-weekly meetings with first-year DCAD students / Fall 2020Poetry broadsides : Beat poets for Special Collections at the University of Delaware Library →

Our Lead Graffiti blog is a mass of varied information that is hard to understand. The search option in the top navigation works quite well if you can hit the right keyword (s). In this sidebar, we’ve highlighted some personally meaningful entries that might help if you want to try a couple of entries. To DEEP DIVE, scroll down the left column.

2025

Postcards, political signs, and protest
Liar, Liar.
Just do it!
Bernie Herman

2024

"Ink Pulls:" the hows and whys
Family holiday card workshop
“Liar, Liar.”+3 broadsides @ NAA exhibit
Waldorf diplomas / 2024
More on X-ing the Paragrab
”Concertina spine” book workshop
Lead Graffiti labyrinth
Jill, Ray, & Brodovitch @ the Barnes

2023

Forward for “X-ing the Paragrab”
UCBA member IMHO Meander Mook project
Black History is White History broadside
AIGA / Philadelphia Feedback broadside
Dunya Mikhail “Pronouns” broadside
etaoin shrdlu
Seven Fun Facts about the Linotype

2022

DCAD First-year talks
Cy Twombley. It’s just my opinion anyway.
”No more war. No more Putin.” broadside
Buying our Albion : that story
January 6th assault broadside

2021

Waldorf School of Philadelphia diplomas
Teleport broadside
ONLINE MEANDER BOOK letterpress workshop

2020

A design example of subtle racism
Looking back : Histories of Newark : 1758-2008
Retrospective exhibition at DCAD
Broadside : Black Lives Matter. A lot.

2019

A wonderful film about Ben Joosten
People Were Close (2004 book project)
WHYY-TV / Waldorf School of Philadelphia
What would a good student do?

2018
Alone in Berlin : postcard power
Doves’ type : metal & digital
“Blue Wave” broadside
John Bolton / Lead Graffiti connection
Alan Kitching’s VCUK workshops
U.S. Senators postcard mailing (coming)

2017
Four things you might want to know about Ray
Introducing Stephen Frykholm at AIGA

2016

Saul Bass. A no-show.
Burning Man & Lead Graffiti’s journal
Chris Fritton, The Itinerant Printer
Porter Garnets’s 10 commandments

2015
Best Intertype project #2 : round calendar
The Nash Equilibrium

2014
WHYY-TV’s Best of 2014
London Bombing’s 7th Anniversary

2013
Tour de Lead Graffiti. Sports Illustrated.
Grant Hart. Letterpress printer?
July 4th revolution coasters

2012
Thank You, Craig Cutler

2011
APHA National annual meeting program

2008
Designing Lead Graffiti’s logo
Art Directors Club of NY Grandmasters Award

2004
VCUK’s Alan Kitching letterpress workshops
VC family album pages

2003
Alan Fletcher : Raven Press logo origin
Bukva:raz! - Our first serious piece

2001
Visiting Eric Gill’s Gravesite