Star Trek star to receive local award

Famed photographer, writer, musician and filmmaker Gordon Parks' choice of weapons was his camera. As the first black photographer at LIFE magazine, Parks chronicled everything from the Civil Rights movement to gang life to the worlds of fashion and art.

At the sixth annual Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture and Diversity actress, singer and activist Nichelle Nichols, pictured, will be awarded the "Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award" at a tribute dinner on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009. It is part of the total celebration, a component of the Gordon Parks Museum/Center created in 2004 by Fort Scott Community College to honor Parks, who is a Ft. Scott native. The full celebration will take place October 7-10, 2009.

Named after Parks' autobiography of the same name, the award seeks to honor a recipient who has excelled in the areas that Parks did and who exemplifies his spirit and strength of character. Previous honorees include actor and musician Avery Brooks, photographer Howard L. Bingham, Elizabeth Eckford and Ernest Green, two of the "Little Rock Nine," and Richard Roundtree, star of the Parks-directed film, Shaft.

Nichols began her professional singing and dancing career in her hometown of Chicago as a young teen. Discovered by Duke Ellington, she was hired to choreograph and perform a ballet in one of his musical suites. As Ellington's lead singer Nichelle Nichols toured the US, Canada and Europe with him and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting.

Her most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series. In succeeding Star Trek films her character was promoted to the rank of Starfleet commander.

It was in Star Trek that Nichols gained recognition as being one of the first black women featured in a major television series not playing a servant. During the first year of the series, Nichols was tempted to leave the show believing that her role lacked significance; however, a conversation with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. changed her mind. Her susequent role as a female black bridge officer was unprecedented.

After Star Trek, Nichols volunteered her time for a successful project with NASA to recruit minority and female personnel. Those recruited include Dr. Mae Jemison, the first American female astronaut and United States Air Force Col. Guion Bluford, the first African-American astronaut, as well as Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ronald McNair, who both flew successful missions during the space shuttle program before their deaths in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.

As an enthusiastic advocate of space exploration, Nichols has served since the mid-1980s on the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, a nonprofit, educational space advocacy organization.

Nichols was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992. In 1994, she published her autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. She also wrote two science fiction novels, Saturn's Child and its sequel, Saturna's Quest.

She has appeared in The Roar of the Greasepaint-the Smell of the Crowd, For My People, and garnered high praise for her performance in the James Baldwin play, Blues for Mister Charlie. She starred in the touring Broadway hit, Horowitz and Mrs. Washington and Nunsense II. In her one-woman show, "Reflections," which opened to rave reviews, she portrayed 12 legendary female entertainers.

She has twice been nominated as best actress for the Sarah Siddons Award, an award conferred by the Sarah Siddons Society whose intent is to promote excellence in a Chicago theatre production. Her first nomination was for her portrayal of Hazel Sharp in Kicks and Co. and the second for her performance in The Blacks.

In 2006, Nichols added executive producer to her résumé. She also was the voice for her cartoon self in two episodes of the animated series Futurama.

Nichols was cast in a recurring role on the second season of the NBC drama Heroes. Her first appearance was on the episode "Kindred" which aired on October 8, 2007. Nichols portrayed Nana Dawson, the matriarch of a New Orleans family financially and personally devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2009 she joined the cast of The Cabonauts, a sci-fi musical comedy that debuted on the Internet. She portrayed CJ, the CEO and demonstrated her singing and dancing talent.

Tickets for Gordon Parks Celebration events will go on sale September 15. For more information contact Jill Warford at (620) 223-2700, ext. 515,

http://www.joplinindependent.com/display_article.php/jill-w1250960334