Presented and produced by Miami Dade College
Miami, Oct. 8, 2019 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Miami Book Fair selected international artist Kadir Nelson to create this year’s official poster. The Miami Book Fair will celebrate its 36th anniversary, Nov. 17 – 24, at MDC’s Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.
In addition to creating this year’s poster, Nelson illustrated the picture book The Undefeated authored by Kwame Alexander, which they will present together at the Book Fair at 12 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23. The book-length poem, which has been nominated for a National Book Award, is a love letter to black life in the United States, and is peppered with references to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others.
Nelson is an American artist who currently exhibits his artwork in galleries and museums nationwide and abroad. His paintings are in the private and public permanent collections of several notable institutions including the Muskegon Museum of Art, The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the International Olympic Committee, and the US House of Representatives.
He has created artwork for a host of distinguished clients, including Sports Illustrated, The Coca-Cola Company, The United States Postal Service, Major League Baseball, and Dreamworks SKG as the lead conceptual artist creating for Steven Spielberg’s Oscar® nominated feature film, Amistad. In December of 2014, Nelson’s striking painting of the late Nelson Mandela was featured on the cover of the New Yorker magazine. Within months, Nelson was asked by the magazine to create an updated painting of the magazine’s dandy, Eustace Tilley, which was featured on the magazine’s 90th anniversary cover in February 2015. He also created artwork for Michael Jackson’s posthumously released album, Michael, and recording artist Drake’s Nothing Was The Same.
Nelson has also authored and illustrated several award-winning New York Times best-selling picture books, including We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” which was presented at the Book Fair in conjunction with an exhibition at the college’s historic Freedom Tower in 2011. For more about the artists, please visit www.kadirnelson.com.
This year’s Book Fair will feature more than 500 celebrated authors from the U.S. and around the world reading from new works and participating in discussions on myriad topics. Recognized as one of the most inclusive events in South Florida, and the best book festival in the country, the Fair convenes more than 150,000 people over the course of eight days.
Fairgoers will enjoy the lively Street Fair held during the closing weekend, Nov. 22 – 24, complements the author programs with hundreds of bookseller and publisher booths; Children’s Alley, a pop-up children’s learning activities village boasting live performances; and The Porch, the ultimate urban community hangout, complete with a beer bar, comfy outdoor seating stacked with board games, and a stage for live music and interdisciplinary performance.
Miami’s location makes it the perfect place to celebrate the literary and intellectual life of Ibero-America and the Caribbean. The IberoAmerican Authors and ReadCaribbean programs of the Fair provide a platform for writers from those regions to highlight the vibrant culture and diverse topics in their native languages.
Students in K-12 will enjoy special author presentations and workshops at the Fair and in their schools as part of the Generation Genius program, and college students will meet with selected authors for in-depth discussions on specific subjects as part of the Fair’s Classroom Collaborations program.
For Miami Book Fair information, please visit www.miamibookfair.com call 305-237-3528 or email wbookfair@mdc.edu.
Follow the Miami Book Fair on social media @miamibookfair.
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About Miami Book Fair
Founded in 1984 by Miami Dade College and partners, Miami Book Fair engages the community through inclusive, accessible programs that promote reading and support writers year-round. The annual eight-day festival has grown into the largest and most comprehensive community-rooted literary gathering in the United States. The Fair features readings and discussions with the world’s most renowned authors, generating discourse on contemporary literature and current issues of international importance. The Fair also include culinary presentations; live music and interdisciplinary performances; interactive, educational activities for children; and more than 200 booksellers and publishers during the Street Fair. Events take place in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and French. In addition to the annual festival, the Miami Book Fair responds to community needs with a year-round schedule of activities, including The Little Haiti Book Festival, highlighting Haiti’s literary acumen; creative writing and publishing workshops; author presentations; reading campaigns; and Read to Learn Books for Free, a partnership with The Children’s Trust that distributes more than 150,000 free books a year to children in Miami-Dade County.
Miami Book Fair is made possible through the generous support of the State of Florida and the National Endowment for the Arts; the City of Miami; Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; Miami-Dade County Public Schools; the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; the Miami Downtown Development Authority; and the Friends of the Fair; as well as many corporate partners. Miami Book Fair: Building community, one reader at a time.
Miami Book Fair contact: Lisa Palley, 305-642-3132 lpalley@bellsouth.net.