Author Event: Jon Key in conversation with Philip Michael Collins

Join us for an evening with Jon Key, author of Black, Queer, & Untold: A New Archive of Designers, Artists & Trailblazers.

Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a creative Black Queer kid, Jon Key imagined himself as a professional artist and designer. But in lecture halls and critiques in art school, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity — the stories and artifacts that reflected him.

Jon started asking himself questions: What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer? A Queer graphic designer? Someone from the South? Could his identity be communicated through a poster or a book? How could identity be archived in a design canon that has consistently erased contributions by designers who were not white, straight, and male? In Black, Queer, & Untold, acclaimed designer and artist Jon Key delves into these questions and manifests a book he (and so many others) needed when they were coming up. Black, Queer & Untold pays tribute to the incredible designers, artists, and people who came before. Jon offers these stories an enduring, reverential stage – and in doing so, gifts us a book that immediately takes its place among the creative arts canon.

Books will be available to purchase at the event.

Host or Publisher Liz’s Book Bar