A key element in the Transforming Hate Project will be my current artist’s book, The Proposal. It is a new “bookwork-as-art” piece. The image and text narrative gives a sense of what it was like for me, an African American artist, to make art from white supremacist hate material. My reflections are juxtaposed within the historical frame of events I witnessed in America from the 1940s through the 1970s, thus allowing me to explore my process of turning the repulsive material into an inspirational object.
The Proposal
Radius Books, a non-profit art book publisher, selected The Proposal from hundreds of submissions as one of 16 confirmed for publication in 2013. As of today, the publication date has been moved to 2014. As you know, publishing has changed and with your help I will raise $25,000 towards the production of a high quality hardback book.
I am often asked, “Why do you have to raise so much money in order to have Radius Press publish the book? Is it your book or will it be their book? Won’t the copyright belong to them?” These are good questions.
When I say that the Press does beautiful books, a common response is that I can get a beautiful book published in Italy or China for less money. The Radius Press team, however, can give me feedback and a distributor that most of us, as individual artists, don’t have access to. Having already self-published Wrongly Bodied, I saw that I am not very good at marketing.
To make a tax-deductible donation visit the link: Artspire Fundraising Page
