Angela Y. Davis, Amy Sherald, Clara Wu Tsai, Crystal R. McCrary and Raymond McGuire to be honored at the May 23rd Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Dinner & Auction in NYC

The Gordon Parks Foundation will host its annual Awards Dinner and Auction celebrating Gordon Parks's legacy and those continuing his commitment to advancing social justice on Tuesday, May 23rd at Cipriani 42nd St. This year's gala will honor scholar and activist Angela Y. Davis, artist Amy Sherald, businesswoman and philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai, author and producer Crystal R. McCrary and businessman and community leader Raymond McGuire. Additionally, the Foundation will welcome Kate Clark Harris, daughter of Dr. Kenneth Clark and Dr. Mamie Clark, groundbreaking psychologists who developed the "doll test" experiments, which were photographed by Parks for Ebony in 1947.

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., March 28, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Gordon Parks Foundation will host its annual Awards Dinner and Auction celebrating Gordon Parks's legacy and those continuing his commitment to advancing social justice on Tuesday, May 23rd at Cipriani 42nd St. This year's gala will honor scholar and activist Angela Y. Davis, artist Amy Sherald, businesswoman and philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai, author and producer Crystal R. McCrary and businessman and community leader Raymond McGuire. Additionally, the Foundation will welcome Kate Clark Harris, daughter of Dr. Kenneth Clark and Dr. Mamie Clark, groundbreaking psychologists who developed the "doll test" experiments, which were photographed by Parks for Ebony in 1947.

The honorees will be introduced by Pulitzer-prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, screenwriter and producer Mara Brock Akil, artist Rashid Johnson, and the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden. The evening will also fete the recently announced 2023 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellows – artists Jammie Holmes and José Parlá and art historian and Howard University professor, Melanee C. Harvey, who received the Genevieve Young Fellowship in Writing. Famed DJ and producer D-Nice will close the night with a special set for all those gathered. The gala, which brings together changemakers across film, music, the visual arts, business and philanthropy, will include a live auction of Gordon Parks's photographs. The evening is co-chaired by Alicia Keys and Kasseem Dean; Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault; Tonya and Spike Lee; Judy and Leonard Lauder; and Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis, Jr.

"The Gordon Parks Foundation is proud to recognize this group of visionary leaders whose dedication to advancing social justice embodies the legacy of Gordon Parks," said Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., Executive Director of The Gordon Parks Foundation. "This annual event is a celebration of Parks's legacy, of the artists and leaders continuing on the path he paved and a reminder of just how crucial this work continues to be."

All proceeds from the evening will support year-round educational programming as well as the fellowships, prizes, and scholarships provided by The Gordon Parks Foundation to the next generation of artists, writers, and students whose work follows in Parks's footsteps. Tickets are available starting at $1,500. They can be purchased on the Gordon Parks Foundation website, or by contacting Buckley Hall Events at [email protected] or 914-579-1000.

Among those being honored on May 23rd is special guest Kate Clark Harris, the daughter of Dr. Kenneth Clark and Dr. Mamie Clark, the first African American man and the first African American woman, respectively, to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University in the early 1940s. Over the course of 14 years, they developed and conducted what became known as "the doll tests"—groundbreaking experiments that revealed the psychological effects of segregation on African American children. The tests were conducted using several dolls, all identical except for skin color. The Black children, ages 3–7, were asked to identify which doll they preferred. The majority preferred the white doll, leading Drs. Clark to conclude that "prejudice, discrimination and segregation" damaged their self-esteem and caused Black children to develop a sense of inferiority. In 1947, Gordon Parks photographed the Clarks conducting their "doll tests" for Ebony magazine for an article titled "Problem Kids: New Harlem clinic rescues ghetto youth from emotional short circuit." "The doll test" research was later used as key evidence in school desegregation lawsuits including, notably, Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

After earning her master's degree from Smith College School of Social Work, Clark Harris carried on her parents' legacy throughout her career as a psychiatric social worker and advocate for the urban poor. She served as executive director of New York City's Northside Center for Child Development, an organization her mother founded in 1946. She is currently retired in Sarasota, Florida and does volunteer work with Take Stock in Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and a local literacy organization that teaches adults to read.

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ABOUT THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION
The Gordon Parks Foundation supports and produces artistic and educational initiatives that advance the legacy and vision of Gordon Parks—recognized as the most significant American photographer of the 20th century, as well as a writer, musician, and filmmaker, who used the arts to further "the common search for a better life and a better world." Through exhibitions, publications, and public programs organized in collaboration with national and international institutions at its exhibition space in Pleasantville, New York, the Foundation provides access to, and supports understanding of, the work and contributions of Gordon Parks for artists, scholars, students, and the public. Through its year-round educational programming and annual grant-making initiatives, the Foundation champions current and future generations of artists and humanitarians whose work carries on Parks's legacy. https://www.gordonparksfoundation.org

ABOUT GORDON PARKS
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, photographer, filmmaker, musician, and author Gordon Parks created a groundbreaking body of work that made him one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1940s, he documented American life and culture with a focus on social justice, race relations, the civil rights movement, and the Black American experience. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man. Despite his lack of professional training, he won a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942; this led to a position with the photography section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, D.C., and later, the Office of War Information (OWI). By the mid-1940s, he was working as a freelance photographer for publications such as Vogue, Glamour, and Ebony. Parks was hired in 1948 as a staff photographer for Life magazine, where he spent more than two decades creating some of his most notable work. In 1969, he became the first Black American to write and direct a major feature film, The Learning Tree, based on his semi-autobiographical novel. His next directorial endeavor, Shaft (1971), helped define a genre known as Blaxploitation films. Parks continued photographing, publishing, and composing until his death in 2006.

Media Contact

Jill Mango, The Gordon Parks Foundation, 1 9142608617, [email protected]

SOURCE The Gordon Parks Foundation