2013 Common Book - A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks

2013-2014 Common Book

Southwest High School is pleased to be joining the One Minneapolis, One Read book conversation this year by choosing A Choice of Weapons as the SW Common Book for 2013-2014.

In this autobiography, Gordon Parks tells how, at age 16 when he moved from Kansas to St. Paul, Minnesota, he managed to escape the povery and bigotry around him and to launch his distinguished career by choosing the weapons given him by "a mother who placed love, dignity, and hard work over hatred." In 1999, Parks, the first African-American to work at Life magazine and the first to write, direct, and score a Hollywood film, told an interviewer, "I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera."

Where to get the book? A Choice of Weapons can be checked-out from local libraries, purchased at local bookstores or online at amazon.com and bn.com.

This is a great way for all SW Lakers to unite. So, get your copy of A Choice of Weapons this summer and read it before school starts.