The homecoming services for Gordon Parks will be held at New York’s Riverside church on March 14th, 2006. Here’s a little on the life of Mr. Parks:
“Don’t call Gordon Parks a Renaissance Man to his face. This incredibly talented American icon who’s also a composer, poet, novelist, film director, and extraordinary documentary and fashion photographer, laughs at the comparison. “I haven’t even learned how to spell Renaissance yet,” he modestly jokes as he sits in his Manhattan apartment overlooking the East River. “There’s really no genius attached to what I’ve done in my life,” he further explains with more seriousness. All I’ve really done is try to survive, more than anything else. Studying my favorite writers, my favorite composers, whether it be Rachmaninoff or Duke Ellington, and whether it’s Satie or Debussy. . .I never closed myself off from any possibility.”
To paint a picture of the artist, then, one must use broad strokes and not forget to mention Parks’s parents’, and particularly his mother’s, influence on the course of his life. Born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was the youngest of 15 children, all of whom grew up in…more.
(Hat tip: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn)
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