Shaheed Rucker: (re)Covering the Iconic

On View: December 20, 2024

Designer and Artist Rucker reactivates the classic design of Jet magazine covers, adorning them with prominent figures throughout Pennsylvania’s history. From Cecil B. Moore and August Wilson to Patti LaBelle and D.J. Jazzy Jeff, these covers visualize the diverse cultural landscape of Black Pennsylvanian achievement while underscoring the intergenerational importance of these unique contributions as nothing less than iconic.

Jet Magazine emerged in 1951 by Johnson’s Publishing as a leading platform for transmitting news coverage to the Black community. From politics and business to sports and entertainment, Jet was an inspirational source centering and celebrating Black people, events, and achievements.  Its digest-size format was often referred to as the “Negro Bible.”

This exhibition will also feature a new series where Rucker reimagines Wheaties Box covers that center Negro- League Baseball achievement and the unique history of Black Baseball in Pennsylvania. With one of the most iconic slogans in sports marketing history, Wheaties – the Breakfast of Champions, captured the “All-American athlete” on its cereal boxes since 1934. Serving as a symbol of recognition for outstanding athletic achievement, some of the most iconic Olympians, sports teams, and individual athletes adorned Wheaties cereal box covers. Rucker includes teams such as the Homestead Grays and the Philadelphia Stars and players like Josh Gibson and Roberto Clemente, visually narrating them as ancestral heroes and true champions of the American sports story.

Jet and Wheaties dynamically utilized simplistic design to transform how society digested cultural iconography. Rucker focuses on this impact to shift focus and symbolize how Black Pennsylvanians contributed to the American cultural landscape.

“Shaheed Rucker: (re)Covering the Iconic” will open on December 20, 2024, in the Jack T. Franklin Gallery at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. ​