Mill City Museum and Gordon Parks Photography Exhibit

Student artists lead tours of Gordon Parks photography exhibit

Exhibit is free and open to the public through June 2014

 

Dec. 27, 2013 (MINNEAPOLIS) Students who have been inspired by world-renowned photographer Gordon Parks will help others learn about his work as part of One Minneapolis One Read, Minneapolis’ community read. The public can now join student docents on tours of the photography exhibit, A Choice of Weapons: A Living Legacy, at Mill City Museum Commons through June 6, 2014. The exhibit features photographs by Gordon Parks on loan from the Gordon Parks Foundation alongside photographs by students who participated in the One Minneapolis One Read photography residency at Juxtaposition Arts. The students worked with nationally acclaimed photographer Jamel Shabazz.

The docent-led exhibit tours are free, open to the public and available by reservation only. To join a tour Fridays 10-11 a.m. or Saturdays 2-3 p.m., send your request at least a week in advance to oneread@minneapolismn.gov. The Mill City Museum is located at 704 S. Second St., Minneapolis.

One Minneapolis One Read is a community read in which everyone in Minneapolis is invited to read the same book and join the conversation. This year’s book is A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks. This compelling autobiography, first published in 1966, tells how Parks managed to escape the poverty and bigotry around him and launch his distinguished career by choosing the weapons given him by "a mother who placed love, dignity, and hard work over hatred."

Gordon Parks (1912-2006) – photographer for Life magazine, writer, composer, artist and filmmaker – was only 16 in 1928 when he moved from Kansas to Saint Paul, Minn., after his mother's death. There, homeless and hungry, he began his fight to survive, to educate himself, and to "prove my worth." Working as a janitor, railroad porter, musician and basketball player in Saint Paul, Chicago and New York, Parks struggled against poverty and racism. He taught himself photography with a secondhand camera, worked for black newspapers, and began to document the poverty among African-Americans on Chicago's South Side. Then his photographic work brought him to Washington, D.C., as first a photographer with the federal Farm Security Administration and later a war correspondent during World War II.

One Read

At its heart, One Minneapolis One Read is a community-driven effort with individuals, neighborhood groups, educators, businesses and nonprofits all coming together to make this a truly citywide read.

A Choice of Weapons is available in paperback at local independent and chain bookstores, online booksellers and Minnesota Historical Society Press. It’s also available through Hennepin County Library.

Join the conversation: get involved

The City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Schools are promoting literacy and respectful public dialogue in this initiative. Minneapolis residents can play a positive role in their communities and explore important – sometimes difficult – issues that they face as a community by reading A Choice of Weapons and getting involved.

One Minneapolis One Read is a collaboration of the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Schools with support from Clear Channel Outdoor, Comcast, Gray Plant Mooty, Mill City Museum, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Minnesota Historical Society Press, Pillsbury House Theatre and the YWCA of Minneapolis.

For more information and to get involved, visit www.OneMinneapolisOneRead.com,www.facebook.com/OneMinneapolisOneRead, www.twitter.com/minneapolisread or email oneread@minneapolismn.gov.