"Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, A Biomythography"

This scan features the cover of the 2018 edition of Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), Audre Lorde’s “biomythography,” designed by Dindga McCannon. The cover image reproduces McCannon’s sculptural work The Revolutionary Sister (1971), currently in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. The figure, approximately 60–70 inches high and constructed of masonite, hardware, and acrylic paint, depicts a self-defined “warrior woman.” She wears a bullet belt assembled from hardware sourced in New York’s Chinatown after McCannon chose not to purchase an expensive original. The hardware elements reflect her deliberate engagement with male-dominated spaces; she recalled being treated as an “alien” in hardware stores and intentionally confronting that exclusion.

The figure’s crown references the Statue of Liberty, reimagined through McCannon’s perspective as a descendant of communities whose histories did not pass through Ellis Island. Spikes derived from the American flag evoke the era’s radical political climate, including flag burnings. The sculpture’s hinged head, which folds downward, adds a kinetic dimension to the work. McCannon later designed multiple covers for Lorde after being contacted by the publisher.