As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, I was introduced to this handmade, hand-printed little book by noted African American book artist and letterpress printer Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. (b. 1948),entitled How Wisdom Came to the World, printed in Oak Park, Illinois at Kennedy’s Jubilee Press in 1992 in an edition of 50 copies.
The piece is an adaptation of a Yoruba folktale about a man named Ijapa who tried to keep all the wisdom of the world to himself and, with the help of his son, comes to realize that wisdom is for everyone. Ijapa literally means “That which moves around awkwardly” in reference to a turtle or tortoise, which is an animal trickster of Yoruba legend. Therefore, this accordion book is printed on pages that are hand-cut in the shape of a turtle. Although the pages are unnumbered, each page has has a different number of small, printed turtles to indicate the order it should be read. The accordion folds down into a 10 x 13 cm square that is housed in a handmade, four-fold amate “paper” enclosure with a turtle motif on the outside.
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- Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern
loved this deconstruction by brennan cause i feel like a lot of people are so used to the sanitized fairy tales that were collected and edited by the brothers grimm and charles perrault so that now a lot of folks don't know that many of the old old stories were just lessons on being clever and tricky and surviving on your wit and tenacity
still biting at the bars of my enclosure over how at a time when they could have felt betrayed by pib in his trial and his pursuing of this hero narrative, the tricksters showed up just before he faced the giants to reassure him, in their own roundabout way. they called him by his character’s name and encouraged him to go forward and let him know that what he was doing was the right thing. and how relieved and happy pib was to see some familiar faces. ‘where’s the net? is it right there, or…?’ it’s just a moment of familiarity and comfort before taking this huge, terrifying step. and knowing that it’s okay to be whoever he wants to be. i don’t think i’ll ever be over that.