A Hole in the Roof

Kadir Nelson (1974 – )

Oil on canvas, 2014

A major contemporary illustrator and artist, Kadir Nelson is also an award-winning author. Born in Washington, D.C., he received his earliest art lesson from his uncle, culminating in an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. His work came to the attention of DreamWorks and the studio hired him as a conceptual artist for the film Amistad, during the course of which he met Debbie Allen, who hired him to illustrate two of her children’s books. He later collaborated on children’s books with both Will Smith and Spike Lee. By then, Nelson had launched a career illustrating and writing children’s books on African-American history, including Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Nelson declared, “My focus is to create images of people who demonstrate a sense of hope and nobility. I want to show the strength and integrity of the human being and the human spirit . . . if you look at contemporary images of African-Americans . . . it’s not always positive. But it’s important to have heroes. I hope a kid can look in my books and see him- or herself in a positive way.”