By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER SENIOR WRITER

Avery Brooks to receive “Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award”
at Gordon Parks Celebration

FORT SCOTT, KS – Avery Brooks will be the first recipient of the Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award at the second annual Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture and Diversity October 5 to 8 in Fort Scott , Kan.

The Gordon Parks Celebration, a component of the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity, was created in 2004 by Fort Scott Community College to honor Fort
Scott native Parks, noted photographer, writer, musician, and filmmaker.

At the culmination of the first year’s events, the Choice of Weapons Award was established in Parks’s honor, to be given annually at the Celebration.

Named after his autobiography of the same name, his powerful story tells how he managed to escape poverty and bigotry by choosing weapons such as his mind, his persistence, and his quiet strength in the face of injustice. “Learning, I knew, would be the most effective weapon against the coming years,” he writes in A Choice of Weapons.

According to the Center’s Executive Director Jill Warford, the award criterion includes choosing a recipient who has excelled in at least one area that Parks did and who exemplifies the spirit and strength of character of Parks.

“We are very pleased that Avery Brooks accepted our invitation to receive this award. Mr. Parks personally recommended him and Mr. Brooks was honored to be chosen as the first recipient,” Warford said. “He is a talented artist who has worked with Mr. Parks and exemplifies everything we could have hoped for in a worthy recipient.”

Brooks is an accomplished actor, director, musician and teacher. He is best know for his television roles as Hawk on "Spenser: For Hire" and "A Man Called Hawk," and as Captain Benjamin Sisko in the "Star Trek" series, "Deep Space Nine."

Brooks portrayed the title role in the film, "Solomon Northup’s Odyssey," directed by Gordon Parks for the PBS American Playhouse series.

He also interviewed Parks for the New York Metropolitan Museum ’s lecture titled “Gordon Parks: The Renaissance Spirit” last year.

Brooks was nominated for an ACE award for his portrayal of Uncle Tom in Showtime’s television production of "Uncle Tom’s Cabin." His film credits include New Line Cinema’s "American History: X" and "Fifteen Minutes," and Sony Picture’s "The Big Hit."

This summer he can be seen in Russell Simmons’s "Def Poetry Jam" on HBO.

He most recently appeared in the title role in the Shakespeare theatre’s production of "King Lear" and performed the title role in Shakespeare’s "Othello" at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C. He played Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s play "Fences" at the St. Louis Repertory Theater and appeared as Bernard in the Crossroads Theatre Company production of Richard Wesley’s Talented Tenth.

Since 1982, he has performed to critical acclaim the title role in the Phillip Hayes Dean play, "Paul Robeson," including performances on Broadway, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles at the Westwood Playhouse.

In New York , audiences have seen his portrayal of Robeson on "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?" both on and off –Broadway and his performance as Martin in "The Offering" with the Negro Ensemble Company. Brooks has acted extensively for the New York Shakespeare Festival where he performed in Ntozake Shange’s "Spell #7" and "A Photograph." He played Theseus and Oberon in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and starred in the American premiere of Derek Walcott’s "Pantomime," both at
Washington ’s Arena Stage.

Directing credits for the theatre include Ntozake Shange’s "Boogie Woogie Landscapes" at the Kennedy Center and "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf" in London’s West End.

Also an accomplished musician, Brooks sang the role of Malcolm in the American Music Theatre Festival production of Anthony Davis’ opera, "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X" and the role of Cinque in the Anthony Davis opera, "Tania." Most recently he performed vocals in the Pushkin project with David Murray, jazz saxophonist, in Paris at the Banlieues Bleues Festival in February 2005 and did vocals for the Blues Rock Coalition’s Tribute to Ray Charles at Symphony Space in NYC in April 2005. He has performed with jazz artists including Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, Henry Threadgill and Jon Hendricks and recorded James Spaulding’s album, Legacy of Duke Ellington.

Brooks served as artistic director of the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Ga. from 1993 through 1996. In 1994 he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theater.

For 34 years Brooks has been affiliated with Rutgers University. He was the first Black MFA graduate in acting and directing and is currently a tenured professor of the theatre at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has taught at Oberlin College and Case Western University and is the recipient of honorary degrees from Oberlin College, Buffalo State College-SUNY, Tougaloo College and Indiana University.