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Friends of Parks join to celebrate his 96th birthday
The Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity hosted the second annual celebration for the birthday of Gordon Parks Thursday evening.
The celebration featured a showing of "Martin: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," a filmed ballet which Parks wrote.
The score and libretto were completed in 1989 when Parks was 76 years old. PBS premiered the film the following year on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Parks, born in Fort Scott on Nov. 30, 1912, would have been 96 years of age this year. He died in March 2006 at the age of 93.
"I think its appropriate we draw a little extra attention to Gordon on his birthday because he was born in Fort Scott," said Jill Warford, executive director of the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.
Warford said the film was chosen because it is not very familiar to many people. With "Martin" being Parks' only ballet, Warford thought it would be a good opportunity to expose people to a different aspect of his work.
"This one is not one that people are familiar with," Warford said. "I hadn't ever seen it myself until last week."
Warford expressed excitement for next year's celebration due to a new location.
"The next one will be exciting because we will be in our new fine arts center," Warford said.
According to Warford some ideas for future celebrations are to have guest speakers come in and speak about Parks' photographs or his fashion photographs. She said she cannot stop thinking about all the possibilities.
"There are so many facets to Gordon's work that I don't think we will ever run out of ideas for presentations," Warford said.