Visual Artist, Author & Creative

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Illustrations and cover design by Nashville artist Shabazz Larkin for the Folio Society edition of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Award-winning artwork interpreting one of the most important memoirs in American literature.

In 2020 I was invited by The Folio Society to create the artwork for a special illustrated edition of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
Angelou’s memoir is one of the foundational works of American literature, and approaching it visually required care. My goal wasn’t simply to illustrate scenes from the book, but to capture the emotional world of Angelou’s childhood: family, migration, faith, fear, tenderness, and the quiet strength of Black community in the segregated South.
For this edition I created the binding design, frontispiece, and a series of interior illustrations that interpret key moments from Angelou’s early life. Each image functions almost like a small monument to memory. I approached the work through portraiture and gesture, using bold color, layered figures, and expressive composition to emphasize presence rather than strict realism.
The illustrations move between intimate domestic scenes and moments of movement and transition. Together they form a visual rhythm that echoes the memoir’s themes of resilience, self-discovery, and voice.
Working on this project was an opportunity to visually engage with a text that shaped generations of readers and writers. It remains one of the projects in my career where literature, portraiture, and cultural memory came together most clearly.
Winner — Best Book Cover (Professional)
World Illustration Awards
2021
The cover illustration I created for the Folio Society edition of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings received the Professional Book Cover Award at the World Illustration Awards.
Publication Details
Publisher: The Folio Society
Publication Date: October 14, 2020
Pages: 256
Illustrations: Frontispiece plus five color illustrations including a double-page spread
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This edition represents a meeting of literature and image, where Angelou’s voice and my visual language come together to reflect on memory, resilience, and the beauty of Black life.
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