Rather than sink into discouragement, Parks absorbed the insult, turning it into part of her origin story.
“I appreciated the note,” she said wryly, “because it planted a little seed in my subconscious: I gotta learn to spell.
Dressed in purple-and-lavender-striped fingerless gloves, fur-lined boots and a black Comme des Garçons jacket, she looked every bit the iconoclastic downtown New Yorker.
At 60, Parks carries herself with the energy of someone half her age, her presence a combination of gravitas and lightness, wisdom and childlike exuberance.
One of America’s most celebrated playwrights — a recipient of the MacArthur “genius grant,” a Guggenheim fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize — she is in the midst of a renaissance.
Persons:
Parks, “, ”, I’m, —, MacArthur
Organizations:
Parks, Guggenheim
Locations:
discouragement, New York, New Yorker