Extra Credit: Gordon Parks

“Gordon Parks’ Learning Tree Experience” To be presented by: John Edgar Tidwell, PhD Professor of English, KU

On Thursday, February 19, 2009, at 4PM in the Crimson & Gold BallroomGovernor’s Room of Overman Student Center, PSU, John Edgar Tidwell, professor of English at KU, will present a talk on the life and career of the photographer, filmmaker, author and activist Gordon Parks. Parks, who was raised in Fort Scott, KS, wrote a memoir of his childhood experiences in the novel The Learning Tree, a novel which he later brought to the big screen in 1969. This gave him the distinction of being the first African American to direct a major motion picture. This event is in honor of African American History month and is sponsored by the PSU Tilford Group, Friends of the Leonard H. Axe Library and the Kansas Humanities Council. Refreshments will be served. All members of the PSU Community and the public are welcome.