by Janet Campbell Hale

by Gordon Parks

Voices From the Gaps: Janet Campbell Hale
Learn about author Janet Campell Hale’s difficult upbringing and her desire to achieve in spite of it. Pay special attention to the page’s opening quotation. How does this information affect your reading of "Desmet, Idaho, March 1969"? What do you think of Hale’s ideas about writing? Write several paragraphs in response.

Half Past Autumn
Read or listen to an interview with the extraordinary Gordon Parks on this PBS site. In his lifetime, Parks has been a poet, photographer, film director, composer, and artist. What similarities can you find among these professions? What qualities might a film share with a song? How might a photo be similar to a poem? Discuss your thoughts with a partner and then choose photographs from magazines and newspapers to illustrate "The Funeral."

Alternative entry: this site has a biography of Gordon Parks and his works:
Gordon Parks was the first African American photographer for Life Magazine. You can see some of his famous images on this Life site devoted to black history. Click on the arrow at the bottom of each page to make your way through the display. Then write a poem based on one of Park’s photos and its accompanying quotation.