Story behind the book cover

While researching Benjamin Van Clarke, I came across this black and white photo of him leading a march downtown.

I fell in love with it. Not only is he looking all gangsta and fearless with his head high and shoulders back, but he’s only like 17 in this picture. Already leading the people.

The street sign in the background topped the cake.

While I knew I wanted this to be the cover of the book, I also wanted to add some women to the mix, because history (and the stories in Krak Teet) proves over and over again that men weren’t the only ones pulling their sleeves up and doing the work. Women were front lining too.

I reached out to Xavier Hutchins (aka Art by Zay), whose work I had been admiring since I seen it on the walls of the Sentient Bean some years back. I sent him the picture and told him my vision for it: “Make it pop with some color and add some women in there too.”

Needless to say, he did the damn thang.

Took that image and flipped it into a book cover and now here we are 🙂