I Remember You
i am in such a funk......
yet i remember you...
gordon parks 11/30/12 - 03/07/06
photographer, writer, director, composer
you were more than a renaissance man
you were a masterpiece
for 2 days now, my tv has been hi-jacked with images and memorandums about dana reeves, widow of "superman" christopher reeves. let me start off by saying that when ANY life is lost, it is an unfortunate and sad occurence and i wish her family comfort and strength. now, as i watched my tv yesterday morning, the news team broke into my program with breaking news-dana reeves has died from lung cancer. i watched and listened, but didn't quite get why her death was breaking news. well, as the day went on, every show from that point took time out to acknowledge her death and memories of her. i then began wondering what did she do? did i miss something? did she have some monumental role that she held while she was alive? i just didn't get it. well, today was the last straw for me. i turned on good morning america as i do every morning and they were STILL talking about her and the segment they were gong to devote to her. then in a 25 second flash, GMA anchors announced that gordon parks had died. he was 93. he was a photographer with an extensive collection. he died yesterday.
now back to dana reeves, she was so kind, we'll miss her spirit. and we have someone here today who was with her when she died. we'll talk about her visions, her son, her voice. they went on and on, with clips of her (i take it she was some type of singer, not an artist, but a cabaret performer turned special event singer). then we got a beautiful montage of dana-on her illness...she spoke on that. dana-on telling her son. dana-on her life and love...her freind who was there when she dies got to speak for 4 minutes....OH CUT THE MALARCKY!!!!!!!!!!
i am still saying-WHO IS SHE!?!?!?!?! besides being married to superman, what great works has she performed? the anchors spoke of how loving she was to superman, how she hung in there...well, he fell off a horse-technically she was supposed to hang in there, he was in a wheelchair. regardless, i'm wondering WHY is there not more info on the life of gordon parks? why did he get a 25 second spot that was dry and listless? the cheerleader from iowa who feel on her head got more coverage (3 minutes). i am sick to death about how black americans are getting tossed to the wayside. there is no way you can tell me that mr. parks' works even COMPARED to whatever ms. reeves did (i'm still waiting for more clarification).
i am by no means trying to disrespect the dead or disregard one human life over another, but it seems that the powers that be blatantly SHOW that comparison and where they rank in their programming. i didn't see any news briefs yesterday about his death. even when i turned on my computer this morning (msn is my homepage), the flashbox had a whole section dedicated to dana reeves and her death, but there was NOTHING on the whole page about gordon parks. this was at 8:06 am EST.
NOT ONE LINE.
gordon parks was a visionary, extremely talented and polished in his work. Parks provided the readers of Life magazine with a unique view of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Malcolm X wrote of Parks in his autobiography, "Success among whites never made Parks lose touch with black reality." Real life and photography were often closely intertwined in Parks's work. In 1961 he was on assignment in Brazil to document poverty there. He met a young, asthmatic boy named Flavio Da Silva who was dying in the hills above Rio de Janeiro. Parks's now-famous photo-essay on Flavio resulted in donations of thousands of dollars, enabling Parks to bring the boy to a clinic in the United States for treatment. Flavio was cured and lives today outside of Rio. In 1968 he became the first black to produce and direct a film for a major studio, Warner Bros. Seven Arts. The film, The Learning Tree, was based on Parks's 1963 autobiographical novel and featured lush romanticism. Surprisingly, Parks also directed some highly commercial dramas, including Shaft (1971), Shaft's Big Score (1972), and The Super Cops (1974). In 2002 the 90-year-old Parks was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma City and received the Jackie Robinson Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. Although he was no longer as active as he once was, his body of work is still being recognized as an amazing contribution to American culture.
i only posted snippets about the phenomonal mr. parks. please go HERE to read a complete bio.
Rest Peacefully, Mr. Gordon Parks - You showed us images we needed to see, the color of love through your lens, your visions and your experience
yet i remember you...
gordon parks 11/30/12 - 03/07/06
photographer, writer, director, composer
you were more than a renaissance man
you were a masterpiece
for 2 days now, my tv has been hi-jacked with images and memorandums about dana reeves, widow of "superman" christopher reeves. let me start off by saying that when ANY life is lost, it is an unfortunate and sad occurence and i wish her family comfort and strength. now, as i watched my tv yesterday morning, the news team broke into my program with breaking news-dana reeves has died from lung cancer. i watched and listened, but didn't quite get why her death was breaking news. well, as the day went on, every show from that point took time out to acknowledge her death and memories of her. i then began wondering what did she do? did i miss something? did she have some monumental role that she held while she was alive? i just didn't get it. well, today was the last straw for me. i turned on good morning america as i do every morning and they were STILL talking about her and the segment they were gong to devote to her. then in a 25 second flash, GMA anchors announced that gordon parks had died. he was 93. he was a photographer with an extensive collection. he died yesterday.
now back to dana reeves, she was so kind, we'll miss her spirit. and we have someone here today who was with her when she died. we'll talk about her visions, her son, her voice. they went on and on, with clips of her (i take it she was some type of singer, not an artist, but a cabaret performer turned special event singer). then we got a beautiful montage of dana-on her illness...she spoke on that. dana-on telling her son. dana-on her life and love...her freind who was there when she dies got to speak for 4 minutes....OH CUT THE MALARCKY!!!!!!!!!!
i am still saying-WHO IS SHE!?!?!?!?! besides being married to superman, what great works has she performed? the anchors spoke of how loving she was to superman, how she hung in there...well, he fell off a horse-technically she was supposed to hang in there, he was in a wheelchair. regardless, i'm wondering WHY is there not more info on the life of gordon parks? why did he get a 25 second spot that was dry and listless? the cheerleader from iowa who feel on her head got more coverage (3 minutes). i am sick to death about how black americans are getting tossed to the wayside. there is no way you can tell me that mr. parks' works even COMPARED to whatever ms. reeves did (i'm still waiting for more clarification).
i am by no means trying to disrespect the dead or disregard one human life over another, but it seems that the powers that be blatantly SHOW that comparison and where they rank in their programming. i didn't see any news briefs yesterday about his death. even when i turned on my computer this morning (msn is my homepage), the flashbox had a whole section dedicated to dana reeves and her death, but there was NOTHING on the whole page about gordon parks. this was at 8:06 am EST.
NOT ONE LINE.
gordon parks was a visionary, extremely talented and polished in his work. Parks provided the readers of Life magazine with a unique view of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Malcolm X wrote of Parks in his autobiography, "Success among whites never made Parks lose touch with black reality." Real life and photography were often closely intertwined in Parks's work. In 1961 he was on assignment in Brazil to document poverty there. He met a young, asthmatic boy named Flavio Da Silva who was dying in the hills above Rio de Janeiro. Parks's now-famous photo-essay on Flavio resulted in donations of thousands of dollars, enabling Parks to bring the boy to a clinic in the United States for treatment. Flavio was cured and lives today outside of Rio. In 1968 he became the first black to produce and direct a film for a major studio, Warner Bros. Seven Arts. The film, The Learning Tree, was based on Parks's 1963 autobiographical novel and featured lush romanticism. Surprisingly, Parks also directed some highly commercial dramas, including Shaft (1971), Shaft's Big Score (1972), and The Super Cops (1974). In 2002 the 90-year-old Parks was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma City and received the Jackie Robinson Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. Although he was no longer as active as he once was, his body of work is still being recognized as an amazing contribution to American culture.
i only posted snippets about the phenomonal mr. parks. please go HERE to read a complete bio.
Rest Peacefully, Mr. Gordon Parks - You showed us images we needed to see, the color of love through your lens, your visions and your experience
posted by Mrs A. at 8:19 AM
10 Comments:
You are so right, Miss A. Even news media is biased about who they air stories about.
Many young black men and women go missing everyday from various places including their schools, homes, vacations, etc. So why dont THEY have a "top story" like that Natalie high school girl that went missing in Aruba or that groom who disappeared on that cruise ship?
Thanks to people like you, Mr Parks and many other wonderful people of color are still hailed for their achievements and recognized all over the world.
Nice post...
Miss A-
I came extremely close to posting about Gordon Parks! Thank you because people need to know about the remarkable man. You're fantastic! :)
You continue to get my applause, I also was wondering what was the big deal about Mrs. Reeves.
I read that she was an activist.
I didn't know about Gordon Parks and what he did till he died. I read the MSN article *they did have a line about him under Mrs. Reeves picture*
The media dictates what they think is important.
I am sure the people in the media would say otherwise or that it's the people who decide what they show for ratings, but that is not true!
Another nice posting ma'am.
BRAVO! I was considering doing my own ode Gordon Parks, since I don't think enough people know of his contributions and what a great loss his death has caused for not only Black Americam, but ALL of America! This was a brillant man!
I haven't seen the tv in a couple of days, so I can't throw my 2 cents in on that. I can say that Mr Parks had a gift you can see it in his work. As for Dana Reeves, the only thing I can think about on that is their son having to live without either parent.
ok, so I am happy to report that I have seen my first news report that talked about Gordon Parks before Dana Reeves. However, I think I figured out part of the reason why they are covering her death so heavily. She died of lung cancer and never smoked a cigarette a day in her life. They are talking about how she was trying to push for people to look more into the hazards of second hand smoke and the increased risk of cancer, specifically lung cancer apparently, in women. Just thought I would pass it on. Plus apparently right after Christopher Reeves died not even 6 mos later her mom died ad then not even another 6 mos later she was diagnosed with cancer. Tragedy, but I still think that the media needs to realize how slanted they report things.
@ the l-yeah, i heard all that, but i'm still like who was SHE as a person, besides mrs. superman and a side singer?? she's not the first who died from lung cancer never having smoked before. AND if that is the MAIN point, then why was i looking at her friend as he's strolling down memory lane...they were talking about how good of a wife she was, how she met chris, how she sang at this affair and that affair...the cancer thing came up in a tidbit and on msn, but not in that long segment they had for her today. but i hears ya!! and i appreciate the info...i was just hoping to uncover something about her personally besides her famous husband and her disease...cuz if her name was mary williams and she died like this, mary wouldn't have see 3 seconds of a news brief.
the al looked like aliens to thei memphis nigga...how ya been
the b.f. got a front row seat to me flipping THE FUCK out about the lack of coverage. i just KNEW i was missing a phenomenal piece on Gordon Parks. I AM SO PISSED!!! STILL. this is nonsense. this is why i feel the need to head to BET. this is the kind of coverage they claim to include in their motto and mission statement. and yet, once again they are missing the mark.
=o
Shoot me down but lift me up because I am about to acknowledge my ignorance. I didn't know Mr. Parks passed. I am so sad. If I wasn't reading your blog, I clearly wouldn't have known abt this monumental loss to OUR culture. I was actually flipping between CNN and Headline News when the Dana Reeves news "hit" America. Like yourself, I wondered what she did besides remain married to the deceased amateur jockey. And BET...(shaking my head) we are more than hip-pop (cause its definately not hip-hop) music, more than maad sports, more than the corner, and more than BEEF. I don't care abt Jay Z & Nas anymore! That was so 2001-2002!! SuperUgly & Ether were years ago, why are we dwelling? Why aren't we progressing? Tell em Jada
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