Gordon Parks Panel: A Poet and His Camera

• Salamishah Tillet
• Michal Raz-Russo
• D. Watkins
• Nicole Fleetwood

Melanee Harvey: Melanee C. Harvey, Associate Professor of Art History at Howard University, specializes in African American art, architecture, and visual culture. She has curated exhibitions on Gordon Parks, published widely, and received fellowships from the National Gallery of Art and Gordon Parks Foundation. Her forthcoming book examines African Methodist Episcopal architecture. Her newest work: Temples of Hope, Rituals of Survival: Gordon Parks and Black Religious Life

Salamishah Tillet: Salamishah Tillet, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for The New York Times, is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing and Africana Studies at Rutgers University–Newark, where she directs Express Newark. Author of In Search of the Color Purple, she co-founded A Long Walk Home, an arts organization ending violence against women and girls.

Michal Raz-Russo: Michal Raz-Russo is Programs Director at The Gordon Parks Foundation, where she oversees exhibitions, fellowships, prizes, and publications. Formerly Associate Curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, she has curated widely, edited major photography books, and launched the Ruttenberg Contemporary Photography Series highlighting emerging and mid-career artists.

D Watkins: D. Watkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Beast Side and Black Boy Smile, is Editor-at-Large for Salon, a writer for HBO’s We Own This City, and a University of Baltimore lecturer. His work appears widely in national publications, and he has received multiple literary and community awards.

Nicole Fleetwood: Nicole R. Fleetwood, Paulette Goddard Professor at NYU, is a MacArthur Fellow, writer, curator, and art critic focused on Black art, mass incarceration, and cultural history. Author of Marking Time and other acclaimed works, she curates exhibitions, contributes widely to journals, and is the inaugural Genevieve Young Writing Fellow at the Gordon Parks Foundation.