Lit Fridays with Mel D. Cole

About Mel D. Cole

NYC based, Syracuse NY raised, self taught award winning photographer; Mel D Cole is one of the world’s most accomplished and celebrated photographers with a career spanning 20 years. Mel specializes in music; specifically hip hop, sports, nightlife, travel, and street documentary, brand and most recently photojournalism.

He released his first book called GREAT: Photographs of Hip Hop in February 2020. GREAT is a one-of-a-kind coffee table book for hip hop lovers, collectors and lovers of photography. The foreword was penned by Questlove.

His second book American Protest. Photographs 2020-2021 by Mel D. Cole was released in November 2021. American Protest is another one of a kind coffee table book that chronicles what was happening on the streets of America after George Floyd was brutal murdered. The body of work he has produced from the electrifying summer of 2020 and beyond is a powerful outpouring of the hurt, outrage and courage of people compelled to take action following Floyd’s brutal murder. Inspired by the black-and-white documentary tradition of the 1960s, Cole seeks to create what he calls “a collective memory” that continues the legacy of the civil rights movement..

Lit Fridays is a literary-focused, virtual salon presented by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, featuring conversations and guest performances on the last Friday* of each month at 6:00p EST via Facebook Live and Zoom Webinar. All conversations are moderated by AWAACC Literary Curator, Jessica Lanay.