SUZAN-LORI PARKS (1963-) is a playwright and screenwriter. In 2002, she became the first black woman in 85 years to win a Pulitzer Prize in a drama category for her play, Topdog/Underdog.
Born May 10, 1963, in Fort Knox, Kentucky, into a military family, Parks spent part of her childhood in Germany and “attended German high school instead of the English speaking school for military children”. The experience, in addition to teaching her the fundamentals of language, showed Parks what it feels like to be neither white nor black, but simply foreign.
She returned to the United States and graduated from The John Carroll School in 1981. She then attended Mount Holyoke College and graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1985 with a B.A. in English and German literature.
While an undergraduate, her English professor introduced Parks to Five Colleges faculty member James Baldwin. Parks began to take classes with Baldwin and, at his request, began to write plays. Parks’ first screenplay was for Spike Lee‘s 1996 film, Girl 6. She later worked in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey‘s Harpo Productions on screenplays for Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Great Debaters.
Parks’ plays include Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, The America Play (the opening scene of which inspired Topdog/Underdog), Venus (about Saartjie Baartman), In the Blood and Fucking A (which are both a retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter).
In 2001, Parks received the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, and Top Dog/Underdog opened in New York starring Jeffrey Wright as Lincoln and Don Cheadle as Booth. It tells the story of two brothers named Lincoln and Booth, one a card shark and Abe Lincoln impersonator, the other, a student of the three-card-Monty con game, and deals with the painful memories of the two brothers. Critical acclaim and excellent box office receipts moved the play to Broadway in 2002. With Mos Def filling the role of Booth, the play remained a success and won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. When asked about her inspiration for writing Topdog/Underdog, Parks says: “It chose me. I wasn’t planning or plotting or scheming…”
Parks is currently creating a screenplay of Toni Morrison’s Paradise, writing a stage musical called “Hoopz”, working as a director at the California Institute of the Arts and enjoying the success of her first novel, Getting Mother’s Body. Suzan-Lori Parks lives in Venice Beach, California, with her husband, blues musician Paul Oscher.
SUZAN ON HBO’S ‘THE BLACK LIST’
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Concrete Loop features ‘CL History Spotlights’ each week honoring individuals who have played pivotal roles in history. submissions are welcome.
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I love how concrete loop does a black history spotlight deal. I love it I learn about African Amercians I never even heard of. Girl 6 was my movie and I have to see The Great Debaters.
She is such a beautiful woman. These highlights are so refreshing.
Amazing!!!! I love these black history spotlights!!!! KEEP THEM COMING!
Love the spotlight… I learn a lot of history….Lets go black people
Aww, she’s AWESOME!! And I Love her hair!!
I love her work so talented!
This was brilliant!
This is so great…I remember receiving applications from Mount Holyoke College but I passed because I saw it was an all girl school. But good for her….great inspiration for all Liberal Arts enthusiasts!
She has beautiful locks!
nice post,
she’s brilliant!!
thanks CL, you learn something new everyday, had no idea
Great post! Once again you have amazed me.
Had no idea she was involved w/’Girl 6′! Love that movie! Her locks are beautiful.
wow, thank you. this is great. i’ll definitey be on the lookout for her.
Wow she is amazing thanks for that info she has a new fan. I loved girl 6 so much I became one at one time. Beautiful hair and aura she is shining!!
Her hair is gorgeous. Man, I wish I had the patience to grow locks like that. She’s my version of Rapunzel.
Thank God for positive black female role models such as Suzan ,Toni Morrison,Maya Angelou,Sista Souljah and etc.
Interesting read! These articles are always interesting…I love her locks.
I seen her before and could not figure out who she is or what shes recognized for. I just thought how refreshing it was to see a naturally beautiful black woman.
Her hair is soo gorgeous, just goes to show how STUNNING black women can be naturally .
OK scrolled up and seen the youtube video, thats where I seen her
Luv u, Suzzzzze.
Im taking a theatre class now…and I have been studying specifically on Suzan Lori – Parks the entire semester and just finished presenting a paper on her. she was the playwright that I decided to research on in depth. Alot of info that is included in CL’s read was also a part of my paper…she is very unique and different individual. I would encourage anyone who is interested in theatre to learn about her and her methods of introducing plays to the people….Very interesting woman!
Great Pic CL…
THANKS FOR THIS SPOTLIGHT J! I’M GLAD YOU CHOSE A CONTEMPORARY HISTORY MAKER THIS TIME AROUND. MAYBE NEXT TIME YOUR CONSIDERING BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS YOU CAN FEATURE AUGUST WILSON!
these are cool posts. It shames me to say it but some of the people I’ve never heard of until i read about them here. and the ones I do know, i learn new facts about them from these posts.
KEEP UP THE DOPE POSTS CL!!!
GREAT POST!
Getting Mother’s Body is a great novel. If you don’t have it, go cop it.
I saw Top Dog/Underdog in San Francisco. I am soooo not a ‘fan of theater’ I get bored easily, but I sat the entire time riveted with only two actors and one or two sets. The acting and especially her writing was just that dope.
Lawd those are Gorgeous locks!!!! … Back to her accomplishments lol she’s pretty awesome [luv girl 6]
Love her! Awesome!
Work it!!! Soul Sister!!!
topdog/underdog is one of my favorite plays…
thanks for the spotlight, mr. dakar…
Wow! I thought at first glance that she was Lisa Bonet!
I remember watching her on the Black List a long time ago. What a great honor to recieve, 85 years! That’s truely a blessing! I wonder what her tattoos mean? Her intelligence helps inspire me! Good looking CL!
Gravedigging is a Black thing? I don’t think so. You can be technically African American, but no nothing about the culture. Case and point, Ms. Parks.
im still waiting for a post about TONI MORRISSON , nobel price of litterature in 1992
@MAX
That’s the same thing that I was thinking, lmao? “Grave-digging”? What type of black people is she talking about? That’s what happens when a black child grows up amongst whites and is subjected to a false sense of identity. She is propbably too ignorant and confused to even be aware of how much of a difference her race made in her upbringing, so she assesses that it was because she wasa “foreignor”. What HBO and these different channels are doing in these last days are rushing to make all types of vain and misleading documentaries to make black people think that the European/American view of black people has changed or improved in some way. They take these bugged out blacks in the entertainment industry, put a camera on them, and make them say something about a subject that they know and care nothing about, which is the plight of black people in this captivity. It’s clear by looking at this woman that she is a l*sbian or/and into the occult in some manner. Those aboriginal tribal tattooes and those dreadlocks have nothing to do with black culture whatsoever. She probably also worships the caucasian man and woman in some capacity, like all the other sellouts that they tap to participate in these “black” television specials.
WAY TO GO CONCRETE LOOP!!
Keep educating us
Judah, why are you always saying something negative/hateful about black women??? You seem to have some serious issues home boy…. *God forgive him*
Its just like ppl to take one little nothing from a conversation and turn it into something. she is not saying that only african americans are grave diggers and whites are not. she is saying that white ppl do not hold onto the dead like we do. we have strong ties with the dead bc we are naturally spiritual ppl through our ancestors.she is also referring to the history of blacks digging up the dead who are buried with valuables. look at the egyptians, they are known for grave robbing as well as the many african tribes who are known to bury their tribal leaders with riches.when the ceremony is over grave robbing to inevitable. please do not be ignorant towards others because of your lack of understanding.
Gray,
That was a great interpretation. I didn’t understand it either. The first thing I thought when I saw the clip was ‘what is she smoking’. But now, because of your explanation, it makes a lot of sense to me. Don’t get mad!
It seemed as if they filmed the interview in the middle of her conversation. As if there was a whole other part to it that we didn’t get to see. That would cause someone not to understand the whole concept of what she was saying.
@ Gray
Learn REAL history. Egyptians weren’t grave robbing other Egyptians. White “archaeologists” were and are the ones doing the grave robbing.
@ 41. Thank You for getting me and yeah it did seem that way.
Max, once again ignorance is not bliss. These white archeologists that you speak of did not come around until THOUSANDS of years after that type of Egyptian civilization died out. when they got there all the tombs with the exception of Tut’s had been robbed. so tell me who could have done such a thing but their own ppl. majority of the artifacts that have been sitting in the museums were recovered from ppl who bought the items from……Egyptians who acquired them through……. grave robbing.
Oh Yeah and those tattoos are not tribal. they are sandscript, which is thought to be not only the worlds oldest but first language.
Thanks for the knowledge, CL….I like Suzan and always thought she was cool….and Gray, your knowledge of these topics are cool…debate on
Very interesting – I love to see how diverse we as a people are. I love to see us knowledgeable about so many various issues and topics. I always had to deal with comments like Judah’s growing up because I grew up exposed to many things. The questions would come: why do you like this, why are you interested in that? Because I like to read and educate myself – that’s not something just white people do ya know! They used to always say If you want to hide something from a negro put it in a book. Well, I’m not going for it. I’m going to read and learn about any and everything that I want to. From graverobbing to chemistry to forensics to European history. We play a role in so many things, but because it’s not “cool” enough or “black” enough, people get ostracized by their own. Doen’t this sound familiar? Do we remember someone in recent black history who was not deemed “black enough?” Well he’s our president now, so go on with that mess…
I love her! I think she is really great. Found out about her from Oprah’s AHA moment. She is doing her thing!
@PhillyFashionista
I think that the Most High needs to forgive you for your massive simplicity. The only entity on earth more bugged out than the black woman is the black man, and the only entity more mischievous than the black woman is the white race. Take it for what you want.
@Gray
Your ignorance shows through your false knowledge of history. The Egyptians did rob the graves of other Egyptians, but the bulk of grave robbing was done by the muslims under the Arab invaders, and later the Ottoman Turks. In addition to that; the Europeans robbed the tombs under the Greek Ptolemaic rulership, the Romans, and later as the Napoleonic French, the British Empire, and Hitler’s Nazi Germany. My point being that grave robbery has nothing to do with being black. She’s a closet coon trying to fabricate “Afro-centricism” (which is a false doctrine anyway). That’s why she has that bugged out look that these simple-minded black women adore. The adoration of the dead employed by the Africans usually leads to and involves necrophilia, witchcraft, divination, and cannibalism.
Dreadlocks are a filthy hairstyle that were worn by numerous races but was made popular by the Kenyans. Furthermore, the language that you’re referring to is called “sanskrit”, not “sandscript”. “Sandscript” is what little kids do at the beach, lol. The reason why the white man tells you that “sanskrit” is the original language is because, according to his scholars, it is the progenitor of the “Indo-European” languages. In other words, he wants to glorify himself as the first civilized man. The original language was a proto-Hebrew language that was employed by all races until the Tower of Babel event. That’s why all languages employ the uses of Hebrew words or characters in their lexicon. Lastly, the black people here in America are not the descendants of the Egyptians, but that is another topic.
getting mama’s body was bomb! i read it three times!