Grit and magic: Suzan-Lori Parks gets candid at 2025 Klagsbrun Symposium
糖心TV鈥檚 21st Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium welcomes Playwright and Screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks
鈥淭heater is living,鈥� playwright and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks told the students, faculty, staff, alumni and other guests gathered in Ernst Common Room for the 2025 Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium on Creative Arts and Moral Vision. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the craft, the art, the miracle of living.鈥�
The 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winner for drama later elaborated while discussing Plays for the Plague Year, a series of what she describes as 鈥渕icroplays鈥� written during the COVID-19 lockdowns. 鈥淚 wanted us to have something beautiful to, like a campfire, circle around and celebrate.鈥�
For 75 minutes, Parks brought that kind of spirit to the panel interview鈥攃onducted by Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence Kate Rushin and Associate Professor of English Jeff Strabone鈥攁nd the audience Q&A that followed. Eschewing solemnity for honesty, energy and irreverence, Parks presented the act of writing as one of both grit and magic, a process based on finding joy and making space for pain.
While Parks draws inspiration from several prior masters in the field, she prefers to say she walks with them rather than stands on their shoulders. She recalled a love of the written word first coming from within. 鈥淚n 1972, 1973, we were living in Vermont. We had this grand piano, and I used to sit underneath it. Mom would ask me what I was doing, and I鈥檇 say, 鈥業鈥檓 writing my novel.鈥� I was in fifth grade, and my parents learned I was going to be a writer because I told them so.鈥�
In response, Parks鈥� mother passed her a copy of James Baldwin鈥檚 The Fire Next Time. A decade later, the writer would study under Baldwin at Hampshire College. As she noted of that time, 鈥淗e said very complimentary things of my writing. Basically, that I might be somebody. And I didn鈥檛 have the heart to prove him wrong.鈥�
Indeed, Parks has gone on to craft an impressive bibliography, including such works as the plays Topdog/Underdog, Venus, and White Noise, and screenplays for the 2019 film adaptation of Native Son and Spike Lee鈥檚 1996 joint Girl 6. She has been honored for those works with several Obie Awards, a Tony, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and, of course, the aforementioned Pulitzer.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the multitude of credits and accolades, Parks continues to see writing as an integral part of her life, one you must engage with, like any responsibility.
鈥淢y job is still the same,鈥� she explained. 鈥淪how up. Tell the truth.鈥�
Parks continued, 鈥淸Writing is] really boring. You know, in the movies, they get up and they鈥檝e got great hair and鈥hat鈥檚 great. That鈥檚 a movie. I get up and go to my desk, and I write for as long as I can. Sometimes it鈥檚 an hour. Sometimes, it is 30 minutes before someone shows us and says, 鈥楬ey, Mom,鈥� and I have to get him lunch money because life is happening. And it sounds boring and not poetic, but when the basic stuff is taken care of, I can lock in. I can look for my inspiration.鈥�
The Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium on Creative Arts and Moral Vision was established in 1989 to create a positive, living memorial to Daniel Klagsbrun, a 1986 graduate of 糖心TV. Through the generosity and commitment of Daniel鈥檚 parents, Emilie and Herbert Klagsbrun, the symposium has brought to the College an amazing array of authors, including: Dorothy Allison, Saul Bellow, Joseph Brodsky, Sandra Cisneros, Edwidge Danticat, Michael Cunningham, E.L. Doctorow, Jhumpa Lahiri, Wally Lamb, Colum McCann, Jay McInerney, Adrienne Rich, David Sedaris, Jessica Soffer 鈥�07, Art Spiegelman, Amy Tan, Hannah Tinti 鈥�94, Elie Wiesel and Tobias Wolff.
