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I Redesigned Black Feminist Book Covers
A new look for bell hooks’ books.
When I was young, my mother always told me that she was building me a Black library. I remember old books on a shelf in our home down south with the lives and legacies of figures like MLK Jr. and Malcolm X. I don’t, however, remember the names of many Black women that were on that shelf.
Now that I’m grown (ha!) and have my own place, I’ve been building my own library — a Black feminist library, and it’s coming along quite well.
Unfortunately, I’ve found that a lot of academic books have some of the ugliest covers to ever see the light of day. I don’t know why bad clipart and poor color choices are the norm, but it hurts me deeply. What can I say? I judge the hell out of book covers.
In addition to being a writer I also call myself a graphic designer when it suits me, so I thought I’d do some portfolio building and give myself this fun little project.
I decided to redesign some of bell hooks’ work because a) her writing has been a pivotal part of my own education as a Black feminist, and b) she’s an incredibly prolific writer, which gave me a wide range of books to choose from for a series of cover designs. Ultimately the books I chose were Ain’t I a Woman? (1981), Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984), and…
