Will Smith celebrates memoir with Sevenoaks Bookshop art installation

Will Smith has partnered with Black-owned bookstores and artists of colour across the UK and America to celebrate his upcoming memoir Will (Century), with Sevenoaks Bookshop featuring an artist’s display. 

Ten artists recreated chapters from Will as unique window displays at local independent bookshops. The artists come from a range of creative backgrounds, and the group includes woodcutters, painters, muralists, bead artists, photographers and printmakers. 

“Smith is thrilled to be partnering with these talented and inspiring artists as he opens up for the first time about his story—his transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history,” Century said.  

Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent will feature an artist installation alongside stores in Atlanta, the Bronx and Chicago in the US. 

Visual artist Jade Pearl was selected to create a bespoke window and in-store display for the award-winning Kent indie store. Exploring the final chapter in the book, which focuses on "love", Pearl’s artwork will be on display at the shop for the next two weeks. Along with the other bookshops and artists, the installation will be featured across Smith’s Instagram, which has more than 50 million followers, and in a dedicated PR campaign. 

Pearl drew inspiration from the New Orleans-based visual artist Brandan “BMike” Odums, who designed and unveiled the cover of the memoir, which features a series of layered portraits of Smith throughout his life, and was revealed at a community block party in Miami in June.

Pearl said: “I am thrilled to have been selected to create this artwork for Will Smith and for Sevenoaks Bookshop. I was inspired by the aesthetics of BMike’s cover for the book and chose to also use the process of layering for my artwork because Love, my selected chapter, is a complicated emotion: layers of experiences and lessons learnt build up as you move through your life, but parts of these layers remain visible underneath. As in Will's journey, this is all a process and makes us who we are today." 

Fleur Sinclair, owner of Sevenoaks Bookshop, said: “I’ve grown up with Will Smith, considering him in 'Fresh Prince' mode as the dream older brother/cousin and watched all of his films specifically because he was in them. One of our favourite things in the bookshop is working with artists to make displays. Bookshops are havens, places of stories, journeys, creativity and connection. We’ve been so excited to see what Jade Pearl creates—the combination with Will’s book will undoubtedly spark some memorable magic.” 

This initiative will also incorporate major in-store merchandising, including point of sale goods auch as posters, bookmarks, till-point postcards and "It Takes Will"-branded tote bags. 

The actor and singer will be arriving in the UK next week to promote his memoir. In addition to a schedule of high-profile interviews, fellow actor Idris Elba will interview Smith on stage at a sold-out event at the Savoy Theatre in London, which will be streamed live. Sinclair and Pearl will be attending the show.

Will was written with the help of Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (HarperOne), and acquired by Century in 2018. It was published on 9th November.