When sixth grade teacher Terrance Sims put together this year's Black History Month [1] program for his elective class at Milwaukee College Prep School in Wisconsin, he had no idea how popular his vision would become. The work, of course, is a series of beautiful images in which Sims's students recreated book covers of historical black icons, ranging from the first lady [2] to activists and pillars of black culture. "Once the students approached me about the idea [to shoot book covers], I wanted to tie it in with the project I do yearly called 'Representation Matters,'" Sims explained. "I gave them books based on people I thought they resembled and they began reading."
From there the idea morphed into a widely lauded effort. Sims tapped into something that enabled his students to explore learning [3], reading, and cultural identity all at the same time. "These [sixth] graders are a part of my elective class I teach at the school. In the elective we explore topics like bullying and colorism. We decided to include a book club portion within our elective," Sims explained further.
Read on to get a glimpse at the photographs. And if you're wondering why they're so good, Sims didn't just get lucky with the camera. "I am a photographer when school is in Summer session, so I have experience with taking and editing pictures. I definitely see growth in my craft from the first year I did this project to today."
