Art fact Friday #26 Keith Knight Jr
- William Mandela Matthews
- Jan 19, 2024
- 2 min read
Highly regarded as one of the funniest cartoonists and musician known in America. The artist created several comic strips, best known being K Chronicles and the single panel (th)ink. Multi-award-winning bringing a uniquely personal style uniting Calvin & Hobbes, MAD, and underground comix. For three decades, the artist has been a part of a generation of African American artists raised on hip-hop. The artist infuses urgency, edge, humor, satire, politics, and race. While the artist work is humorous and universal in appeal, it often attacks political, social, and racial issues. The artist appears in various publication including the New Yorker, the Washington Post, Daily KOS, San Francisco Chronicle, Medium.com, Ebony, ESPN Magazine, L.A. Weekly, MAD Magazine, and the Funny Times. The artist work which, highlights America’s racial illiteracy have been recognized by the NAACP and The Knight a Belle Foundation. The artist is co-creator, co-writer, and an executive producer of the Hulu series Woke; inspired the artist’s life.
Born August 24,1966 in Malden, Massachusetts Keith Edgar Knight Jr. began his public career, in 1984 as the official Michael Jackson impersonator of Jordan Marsh department store in Boston. Knight launched The K Chronicles in the early 1990s, the work made regular appearances in various outlets like the Daily Kos, and the San Francisco Examiner. In 1997 Knight was also a part of the hip-hop band, the Marginal Prophets. They went on to win a California Music Award for their 2nd disc, Bohemian Rap CD released in 2004.
The K Chronicles also received the Glyph Awards Best Comic Strip multiple times 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010. In 2007, The K Chronicles was awarded the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best Syndicated Comic Strip. In 2008, he launched The Knight Life. Knight was presented with an Inkpot Award for career achievement at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2010.In 2015 the NAACP recognized Knight as a History Maker, stating "ability to inspire conversation and action through his comic strips is a testament to the power art can have on a movement, and a shining example for all those looking for their unique way to make change in the world." He also received the 2015 Belle Foundation grant.
In November 2018 Hulu announced the production of a sitcom, based on The K Chronicles and events from Knight's life. The show would be titled Woke and is co-written by Knight; staring Lamorne Morris as Knight. Woke debuted on September 9, 2020. On November 17, 2020, Hulu renewed the series m. Currently he a writer, and executive producer of Woke.
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