Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006), American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942 (detail), gelatin silver print. Gift of Frederick B. Scheel, 2007.35.169, ©️ The Gordon Parks Foundation

Closing Celebration for American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson

Join us in celebrating the closing of “American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson” with a special viewing of “Gordon Parks’ American Gothic: Liberating the Voices and Visions of a New Generation,” a documentary from the Twin Cities PBS program Don’t Believe the Hype. Hype puts youth in grades 9–12 in front of and behind the camera, leveraging the power of filmmaking to help Indigenous, Black, Latino, Asian American, and historically unrepresented young people craft their own narratives and amplify their unique voices.

Catch the film at 5 p.m., followed by a talk by Robin Hickman-Winfield, Parks’s grandniece, and members of the Hype team, and a second viewing at 5:30 p.m. The film will then play on loop until 8:00 p.m.

Guests are welcome to view the exhibition, in the Harrison Photography Gallery, before and after the event. This intimate series of nearly sixty photographs reveals Parks’s experiences in coming to terms with the segregated city he once embraced as “the seat of democracy” and proposes new grounds for understanding Parks as an artist and activist.

_{Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006), American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942 (detail), gelatin silver print. Gift of Frederick B. Scheel, 2007.35.169, ©️ The Gordon Parks Foundation}