About This Stamp
With this stamp design, the U.S. Postal Service® continued its tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa. The annual Pan-African holiday, which takes place over seven days from December 26 to January 1, brings family, community, and culture together for many African Americans.
The stamp art depicts a man, woman, and child adorned in a mixture of western and African-inspired clothing, paying tribute to the holiday’s focus on the contemporary African-American experience while also drawing on African roots. The family is gathered around a kinara (candleholder), the warm light from the seven candles (mishumaa saba) illuminating their faces. Several other important Kwanzaa symbols sit on the table — a few ears of corn (muhindi) and various fruits and vegetables (mazao); the kikombe cha umoja (unity cup); and the mkeka, a straw mat on top of which everything is placed.
Each year, millions of African Americans gather with friends and family throughout the week of Kwanzaa to honor the holiday’s seven founding principles — Unity (Umoja), Self-Determination (Kujichagulia), Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa), Purpose (Nia), Creativity (Kuumba), and Faith (Imani). Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to the focus of one of these seven principles, collectively known as the Nguzo Saba.
For some Kwanzaa observers, a discussion about the role of that day’s principle in everyday life is an important part of these communions. Children often receive gifts (zawadi), such as books and heritage symbols, from parents and loved ones to reaffirm the value of knowledge in many African cultures. Those present for the celebration share in a feast that honors their common heritage and the values of the holiday.
Created in 1966 during the height of the Black Freedom Movement, Kwanzaa was conceived as a unifying holiday in the face of struggles to end racial oppression in the United States. It draws on African traditions, deriving its name from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning “first fruits.” With origins in Africa’s ancient and modern first-harvest festivities, Kwanzaa synthesizes and reimagines many of these communal traditions as a contemporary celebration and reaffirmation of African-American culture.
Artist Floyd Cooper worked with art director Derry Noyes, who designed the stamp.
This was the seventh stamp design issued by the U.S. Postal Service in celebration of Kwanzaa. The first Kwanzaa commemorative stamp was issued in 1997. New designs were also issued in 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2016.
The Kwanzaa stamp was issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
Floyd Cooper
Tulsa native Floyd Cooper began drawing at age three and has never stopped. He studied fine art at the University of Oklahoma, where he began his career creating artwork for newspapers, advertising agencies, and an education company.
As a freelance artist, Cooper has worked with a variety of clients, including Hallmark Cards, Budweiser, Hasbro, Time Life, Avon, and Highlights for Children.
Cooper has also had a prolific career in children’s publishing, authoring more than 100 children’s books and illustrating more than 2,000 book covers. He has received considerable recognition and praise for his work, including several NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Literary Work, Children’s nominations; the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) gold medal in children’s picture books; and multiple American Library Association Notable Children’s Books awards. He was also the 2009 Coretta Scott King Book Awards Illustrator winner.
Using a unique method of subtraction in his artwork he calls “oil erasure,” Cooper covers an illustrated board with oil paint and then erases the paint to create his images. This technique gives his illustrations a warm and recognizable quality.
Cooper lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons. Kwanzaa (2018) is his first project for the Postal Service™.