Props due: the Zora Neale Hurston stamp.
I don’t want to come across as ungrateful. It’s lovely that the USPS puts an eminent black person on a stamp every year or so. But the Black Heritage series stamps have been visually clunky — I think the chunky “BLACK HERITAGE” branding is part of the problem, but the photo/image selection hasn’t been compelling either. (The Langston Hughes stamp feels better composed than most.) Better to be commemorated in a non-ethnicity-focused series, it seems, such as this Literary Heritage stamp of Zora Neale Hurston:
I’m rarely impressed by U.S. stamp designs, but I like this one and I’m glad I saved a couple before they stopped producing it. As I’m not terribly far from Eatonville this week, it seems like a good moment to praise Drew Struzan for creating a vibrant rendering of this daughter of Florida. If you don’t know much about Ms. Zora, I recommend Wrapped in Rainbows, Valerie Boyd’s biography of the fun-loving folklorist and novelist.