Whitehot Magazine at The Gordon Parks Foundation Celebration - Cipriani 42nd Street

NEW YORK, NY – May 22, 2025 - photos by MARCARSON for Whitehot Magazine

Taking place at Cipriani 42nd Street, the night celebrated the enduring legacy of visionary photographer and multidisciplinary artist Gordon Parks. All proceeds from the gala support year-round educational programming as well as the fellowships, prizes and scholarships provided by The Gordon Parks Foundation to the next generation of artists, writers and students whose work advances Parks’s legacy and vision, as well as peers of Parks with the launch of the newly instated Legacy Acquisition Fund. 

Following a cocktail hour, special guests Pastor Ernest Ledbetter, Jr. and Ernest Ledbetter III, whose father and grandfather was photographed extensively in 1953 by Parks for a story on Chicago’s Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, opened the night’s programming with a moving invocation. Next, GRAMMY Award winning, singer, songwriter and actress Andra Day performed “God Bless The Child” before The Gordon Parks Foundation’s Executive Director Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. welcomed guests and spoke about the significance of this year’s gala by saying, “Since this gala began in 2007, we’ve celebrated many extraordinary evenings — but tonight may be the most critical gala we’ve ever held. Because now, we are facing some of the strongest forces we’ve ever faced, determined to prevent progress, to erase history, and to silence the voices that challenge injustice. Gordon gave us clear instructions: ‘Take what I’ve built—and push it forward. Take what I’ve started—and carry it into the future.’ That future is NOW. That’s why this gala matters. Because every dollar raised supports young artists who are breaking barriers, telling urgent stories, and forging new paths forward. They are the future, and we must protect their ability to create, to challenge, to lead and to make change.” 

Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. also recognized two celebrated artists and members of Gordon Parks’s circle, Mikki Ferrill and LeRoy Henderson who are part of GPF’s inaugural Legacy Fund, a collection-building initiative that will focus on mid- and late-career artists whose enduring work is connected to Parks’s life and legacy, as well as this year’s Gordon Parks Foundation’s Art Fellows: artist and educator Derek Fordjour, photo-based artist and feminist activist Scheherazade Tillet and The Gordon Parks Foundation’s Genevieve Young Fellowship in Writing recipient Salamishah Tillet, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing critic-at-large for the New York Times. 

After that, Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe, Oscar, Olivier & Tony Award nominee Colman Domingo presented honors to his friend Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast, and Global Editorial Director, Vogue, and spoke about her commitment to culture and community, her work ethic and how deeply she cares about using her platform to create change. Wintour graciously accepted the award by saying she has long admired Gordon Parks’s courage and the strength of his point of view – admitting that historically Vogue could have done more for Black artists and designers, to thunderous applause from the audience. Wintour accepted the award by saying “we can still do more, and we will.” 

This moment was a particularly poignant full-circle moment as Parks got his start at Vogue over eight decades ago in 1944. 

Conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, whose mother – contemporary artist, photographer, historian, author and educator, Deborah Willis, was mentored by Gordon Parks – took the stage to pay tribute to acclaimed contemporary artist Rashid Johnson and said, “Coming to this gala changed my life. This gala is where I realized I could make waves for generations.” Johnson accepted his award by saying, “each of you in this room has changed culture in so many ways, and I’m honored to be recognized alongside you. The pursuit of freedom is something I carry with me in my practice, and tonight I’m full of gratitude for the artists in this room, the Foundation and the belief that art at its best is still a call to freedom.” 

The Roots’ trumpet player Dave Guy performed a charming musical interlude with “Ruby’s Rubies” while a seasonal fare of arugula salad with cherry tomatoes, artichokes & shaved parmesan, Prime roast sterling filet of beef, Chilean Sea Bass, broccolini and potato tortino was served ahead of the night’s live auction of Gordon Parks’ photographs. Led by powerhouse Sotheby’s auctioneer Kimberly Pirtle, a record-breaking $3 million was raised to advance the work of the foundation. 

The awards ceremony continued when fashion designer and author Aurora James was joined by model and actor Tyson Beckford who spoke about fashion as a tool for change and presented honors to legendary model and activist Bethann Hardison who said, “it takes bravery to do a lot of things, and right now we have to be extremely brave.” Creative director, photographer and activist Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe presented the last award of the night to Ambassador Andrew Young, the beloved politician, minister and civil rights leader who was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta and a U.S. Congressman. Wearing Ghanaian garb to spotlight their plight, his speech was particularly moving as he recalled, “Before I met Gordon Parks, I heard of the power of Gordon Parks. Today, I dream of a world where peace and justice reign and hunger and war cease. This audience is a testament to the faith I have in humanity. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.” 

Andra Day returned to the stage to perform a moving rendition of her certified quadruple platinum smash “Rise Up,” and it served as the perfect ending to a celebration of the Foundation’s nearly two decades of important and impactful work during a moment of great divide in this country. 

The evening’s co-chairs and supporters included: Alicia Keys and Kasseem Dean, Tonya and Spike Lee, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, Anderson Cooper, Sarah Arison, Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault, Michi Jigarjian, Judy and Leonard Lauder, Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis, Jr., Crystal McCrary and Raymond McGuire, Gail and Jeff Yabuki, Alex Soros and Huma Abedin, Clara Wu Tsai, Tory Burch, Dapper Dan, Alina Cho, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, Amy Griffin, Maya Harris, Cord Jefferson, Malcolm Jenkins, Misty Copeland, Gayle King, Ari Melber, Leslie Odom, Jr., Maxwell Osborne, Deborah Roberts, Marcus Samuelsson, Annie Leibovitz, Jay Ellis, Prabal Gurung, Breanna Stewart, Michael Stipe, Mickalene Thomas, Dao-Yi Chow and many more. 

Those who couldn’t make it to the event can visit www.gordonparksfoundation.org to support and learn more. 

ABOUT THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION 

The Gordon Parks Foundation supports and produces artistic and educational initiatives that advance the legacy and vision of Gordon Parks—recognized as the most significant and influential American photographer of the 20th century, as well as a writer, musician, and filmmaker, who used the arts to further “the common search for a better life and a better world.” Through exhibitions, publications, and public programs organized in collaboration with national and international institutions at its exhibition space in Pleasantville, New York, the Foundation provides access to, and supports understanding of, the work and contributions of Gordon Parks for artists, scholars, students, and the public. Through its year-round educational programming and annual grant-making initiatives, the Foundation champions current and future generations of artists and humanitarians whose work carries on Parks’ legacy. 

ABOUT GORDON PARKS 

In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Gordon Parks created a groundbreaking body of work – beginning in the 1940s, he documented American life and culture with a focus on social justice, race relations, the civil rights movement, and the Black American experience. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man. Despite his lack of professional training, he won a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942; this led to a position with the photography section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, D.C., and later, the Office of War Information (OWI). By the mid-1940s, he was working as a freelance photographer for publications such as Vogue, Glamour and Ebony. Parks was hired in 1948 as a staff photographer for Life Magazine, where he spent more than two decades creating some of his most notable work. In 1969, he became the first Black American to write and direct a major feature film, The Learning Tree, based on his semi-autobiographical novel. His next directorial endeavor, Shaft (1971), helped define a genre known as Blaxploitation films. Parks continued photographing, publishing, and composing until his death in 2006. 

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