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Gordon Parks and the Postwar City Conference

Name: Gordon Parks and the Postwar City Conference
Start: 2025-04-02T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-04-04T23:59:59-05:00

April 2 - April 4

Join us for Gordon Parks and the Postwar City, a three-day interdisciplinary conference taking place April 2–4, 2025, at the UIC Great Cities Institute and Daley Library. This event explores the groundbreaking work and lasting impact of Gordon Parks—one of the most influential Black photographers, filmmakers, and storytellers of the 20th century.

Parks’s career spanned decades and mediums, capturing the radical transformations of post-World War II America. Through his iconic photographic essays, films, and activism, he documented urban life, civil rights, poverty, Black identity, and the rise of Black Power, offering an unflinching look at American society through the lens of social justice. The conference will highlight Parks’s deep connections to Chicago, where he launched his career at the Southside Community Art Center and developed his philosophy of the “camera as a weapon” against inequality.

This conference brings together students, scholars, artists, activists, and filmmakers to examine Parks’s legacy across disciplines and its relevance to contemporary struggles for racial and social justice. Featuring panel discussions, film screenings, and community dialogue, the event is free and open to the public.