CONCEPT:
For this project, I wanted to emphasize Walker’s poem “For My People.” To me, the poem was very powerful in the word choices Walker choose and it uplifts the spirit of the Black Americans who were suppressed during the 1940s. I discovered many pamphlets of complilation of poetry that she wrote and sold to the public. For the background of this poster, I hand-wrote stanza 1-4, and the last stanza of the poem on loose leaf paper to represent Walker’s academia career. The poem was handwritten because I want to preserve Walker’s writing as she has created a center for preserving African American Heritage in Jackson State University. To me it symbolizes the preserving her work while still adding my own personal touch to the design. The doodles that are on the page were taken from Walker’s own personal journals from the Margaret Walker Center digital archives. I highlighted all the “-ing” verbs from the poem to show how slaves were treated to just work, “never gaining, never reaping, never knowing, never understanding.” I crossed them out as a symbol of going on strike, and to represent the civil rights movement. I wanted to highlight the last stanza of the poem since it is the call to action. “Rise and take control” was the last line of the poem, and I superimposed it on top of the handwritten poem on the background to depict that there is always a way to arise from all the hardships and take control of the circumstances. My design process was mostly doing extensive research and scanning manuscripts that I created. I think the most important design philosophy behind my work is that I wanted to represent Margaret Walker both explicitly and implicitly through every step of my design process. From the loose leaf paper background to the message, I wanted this poster to be an extension of Walker’s beliefs and uplifting words that can create an impact in the viewer’s life.
