The first page of the program for the 20th Annual Awards Dinner and Auction of the Gordon Parks Foundation (GPF) contained a quote by the legendary photographer: “There is something about us that goes deeper than blood or black and white. It is our common search for a better life and a better world.” The quote epitomized not just Parks’s philosophy of life, but the mission of the foundation that bears his name.
Photographer, filmmaker, and musician Parks used his talents for many things, but perhaps most importantly as a portal into Black American life. His photographs of joyous Black boys, a Black mother and daughter decked out in chiffon and lace drinking resignedly from a segregated water fountain, and Black children staring wistfully into a segregated amusement park captured both the beauty and brutality of segregated Black American life.
On a recent Tuesday evening at Cipriani 42nd Street, the foundation hosted a bevy of luminaries, including Jalen Hurts, Jelani Cobb, Colin Kaepernick, Derrick Adams, Sherrese Clarke, Kevin Young, Kenneth Chenault Jr., and many more. They turned out to honor contemporary artists who walk in Parks’s footsteps and raise money to ensure that his spirit and legacy live on.
Foundation Executive Director Peter Kunhardt Jr. had a personal connection with Parks. “My grandfather, Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., was the managing editor of Life magazine,” he told the Amsterdam News at the event. “He and Gordon Parks knew each other and worked together for many years, so I knew Gordon Parks as a young boy, and this has been a deep, long passion.”
In addition to the evening’s main events, a two-course meal curated by chef Marcus Samuelsson followed a cocktail hour. Musical performances by Chance the Rapper, the Anthony Morgan Inspirational Choir of Harlem, jazz trumpeter Dave Guy, and jazz pianist Jason Moran (also one of four 2026 GPF Fellowship recipients) punctuated the evening.
A live auction led by Kimberly Pirtle, founder of the Gabriel Advisory Group, was a focal point. Eight photographic prints by Parks, many of them stunning depictions of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, who Parks shot for two historic Life magazine features, were on offer. Others were slices of Black American life featured on the pages of Life in the 1950s and 1960s that moved readers toward a greater understanding of the everyday impact of white supremacy on Black Americans. Most of the images sold for well upward of $100,000.
Highlights of the evening were impassioned speeches about the importance of the arts and social justice, about Parks, and about today’s artists by Kunhardt; Alicia Keys; GPF honorees John Legend, poet Elizabeth Alexander, Chance the Rapper, and artist Henry Taylor, and Lonnie Ali on behalf of the Muhammad Ali family. Speeches by presenters Darren Walker, Hank Willis Thomas, Salamishah Tillet, Deana Lawson, and Colin Kaepernick, along with remarks by Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb, were equally stirring.
Many attendees on the red carpet reflected on the importance of Parks’s legacy. Ali’s daughter Khaliah Ali remarked on his significance for her family: “In Life magazine, the photographs he published of my father literally changed the trajectory of who he was in the eyes of people in America and around the world because they showed him as a human,” she said.
Many also discussed the impact of Parks’s work on society and how he can serve as a model for today’s artists. “The most important thing is to be here to celebrate his legacy and to inspire others to learn about the body of work of this legend — not just an artistic legend, but a legend in civil and human rights,” said former music executive and criminal justice reformer Jason Flom. “It’s important now more than probably any time since the 1960s. I really hope, and I believe, that young artists, even established artists, will be inspired and courageous, as [Parks] was.”
According to Chance the Rapper, “[Parks] was in close proximity to some of the most important voices in American history and world history. Right now, history is under attack, so there’s a great deal of importance when it comes to artistry as a way of documenting life.”
Elizabeth Alexander, Barack Obama’s inaugural poet at his 2009 inauguration and one of the evening’s honorees, spoke to the Amsterdam News about Parks’s courage and how it should serve as a template for today’s artists. “His was an art that gave us the history of the 20th century in the United States,” she said, “and we see that now, looking back, because he never flinched. He never turned away from what his camera saw, and he did so with open eyes and courage. I think that that’s absolutely extraordinary, and something that we need to remember when our art, when our truth-telling, is challenged. We need to stand up like he did.”
Theater producer and filmmaker Melissa Haizlip (“Mr. Soul!”) said that “the Gordon Parks Foundation is furthering his mission to not only curate the culture, but to visually represent and push forward the culture. We are in these difficult times in which our culture is being erased, and the significance of our contributions to American history is being erased. It’s gratifying and rewarding and inspiring to be in this space tonight.”
Haizlip added that artists today who embody Parks’s spirit “are not succumbing to being discriminated against or erased. They understand we’re standing on the shoulders of giants. They recognize — and I think that being here tonight is a reminder — that art is liberation, that art is essential, that Black art is American art, and that art is resistance.”