Over a hundred people turnout out for the opening of the “Stetson Kennedy:A Life of Purpose” exhibit at the Cofrin Arts Center on the Oak Hall School campus at 8009 SW 14th Ave. on Jan. 11. From left to right: Robert Ponzio, Oak Hall Art Department Head; Gary Bone,art teacher and gallery curator; Joe Courter from the Civic Media Center, which collaborated on the exhibit; and Sandra Park, former wife and head of the Stetson Kennedy Foundation. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the show will run through Feb. 9. A showing of “Soul of the People,” which features Stetson Kennedy and the Federal Writers Project, will take place at the CMC on Monday evening, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. Photo by Michelle Koehlmoos.
An exhibition on the life work of Stetson Kennedy will be presented by Oak Hall School at the Cofrin Arts Center in collaboration with the Civic Media Center. “Stetson Kennedy: A Life of Purpose” will follow the arc of Stetson’s life of accomplishment and the people that he collaborated with as he spoke truth to power. He was the author of eight books, among them “Palmetto Country,” “Klan Unmasked,” “I Rode with the Klan,” “The Jim Crow Guide,” “Southern Exposure,” and “After Appomattox: How the South Won the War.”
During his life, he collaborated with a diverse universe of people such as Zora Neale Hurston, Woody Gutherie, Simone de Bouvier, Jean Paul Sarte and Alan Lomax. Stetson Kennedy was an author, folklorist, environmentalist, labor activist and human rights activist. Stetson won numerous awards for his human rights and civil rights work, both nationally and internationally. He was active in all of these areas right up until his death at age of 92 in 2011.
“Stetson Kennedy: A Life of Purpose” will open Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, at the Cofrin Arts Center from 7p.m. to 9p.m. The opening reception will feature Sandra Parks, Stetson’s widow, speaking about Stetson’s life and work as well music by his friend bluesman Willie Green and others. The exhibition runs through February 9 at Oak Hall School in Gainesville.