Princess of Bel Air turns historian

[Ale]

Stephen Hunt, Calgary Herald

Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air didn't exactly teach black history, but thanks to Karyn Parsons, who played Hilary on that show, it's spawning a whole new generation of stories that do.

Parsons, the pretty mother of a four-year-old girl and a nine-month-old boy, who is married to director Alexander Rockwell (In the Soup), has sure taken a road less travelled for someone who grew up in Santa Monica, and had a long-running hit series under her belt by age 30. Rather than remain in L.A., Parsons got married, moved to a farm in western Massachusetts and had a child. She also had an idea percolating in her brain about creating a series of children's stories based on African-American history. Now, as Black History Month continues, Parsons has enlisted the support of such Hollywood talent as four-time Emmy winner Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah and Will Smith to write, direct and produce two short children's films, The Journey of Henry Box Brown and Garrett's Gift. Both are being screened this month in the U.S. on HBO Family channel.

The shorts provide a welcome nod of acceptance from Hollywood, where traditionally, positive African-American characters haven't been received quite so enthusiastically as images of African-Americans as gangbangers and thugs (DVDs are for sale online at www.sweetblackberry.com).

"Teachers keep saying, 'Thank you, thank you, we don't have anything like this out there,' " Parsons says. "This gives them an opportunity, bringing stories about lesser-known African-Americans (into the classroom). This gives them something to work with."

The Journey of Henry Box Brown tells the true story of a slave in 1850 who mailed himself in a box from Virginia to Philadelphia, where he opened it up a free man. The film is based on a true story Parsons learned about from her mom, who worked at the Black Resource Centre at the Santa Monica Library and would call Parsons up on the set of Fresh Prince to tell her the best ones.

"I'd never heard that story before, and it was such a natural story for kids," Parsons says over the phone from New York's East Village, where she lives with her two children, husband and black lab.

"I started taking notes but I was also working on Fresh Prince at the time, so I'd put it aside, go back to work, and forget about it."

It wasn't until years later, after Fresh Prince ended its run and she'd relocated to that farm in Massachusetts, that Parsons decided the time was right to tell the story of Henry Box Brown.

"I thought it would be great to have a line of books for kids," she says.

The problem, as it frequently is, was knowing where to begin.

Her mother-in-law, it turns out, is an artist (who lived in another farmhouse on the same property), who happened to be close friends with Gina Kamentsky, an award-winning animator. Over coffee, Parsons so impressed Kamentsky with her vision that Kamentsky signed onto the project herself.

The Journey of Henry Box Brown was a successful launch, landing spots in various film festivals and becoming an important teaching tool for teachers. It managed to tell a story about slavery, a dark period of American history, in a way that's entertaining, educational and inspirational. After several years of being off the media radar, Parsons found herself being profiled in Essence, the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe and shows such as Tavis Smiley's nationally-broadcast radio program on National Public Radio.

For her second project, Parsons chose to tell the story of Garrett Morgan, a young dreamer who invented the traffic signal.

"It's a story that's empowering for kids, but in this case, it's just really to reinforce with our kids how we're all good at something," she says. "Even if you're looking at your sister and her friends and thinking how great they are -- we all have something that's all ours and to value that, and hopefully those around us, our parents and friends and siblings will help nurture those gifts."

To help finish Garrett's Gift, Parsons turned to an old friend, the Fresh Prince himself.

"I met with Will Smith and was talking about all of this stuff, because he's been really helpful financially, getting it started," she says. "He's very smart about this stuff. He said, 'You need to get Latifah to do this.' He called her and said, you need to do this thing for Karyn, and she did."

With a little help from a few African-American Hollywood A-listers, Parsons is creating positive media images of black people that appeal to children and families from all races.

"I've received testimonials from white parents who were really enthusiastic about getting it for their kids, and wanting to educate their kids," Parsons, whose dad Ken is a white guy from Montana, says. "I think it helps them, because I think it's difficult for white parents to talk about some of these subjects.

"This is a way of saying it's OK, and it eases them into doing it. This is the point of view I wanted to give them so that reinforces their confidence or feelings about what they can tell their kids. That probably ends up helping them and will hopefully open them up to sharing more and more (about race) naturally."

Not bad for an actress who shot to fame playing a pretty airhead named Hilary. Was Parsons scared, she is asked, about launching such an ambitious project from scratch?

"Fortunately, I didn't think too far ahead at all," she says, "because if I had, I probably just would have shrivelled up and thought, forget it, I'm not doing it. It would have been too daunting, if I'd known what it would take -- but I was just excited about getting these stories out, to kids. Starting with Henry Box Brown, and going a step at a time, it wasn't frightening at all."

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/e...42fa633&p=1

Edited February 20, 2008 by Ale

[MissAshley]

that's pretty cool, good that Will and Latifah are involved too.

[Hero1]

Excellent!

[VIsqo]

Really good!

[MaxFly]

Props to Will and Queen Latifah for getting involved in this.

[JumpinJack AJ]

Love the idea...love the teamwork.

[theman213]

Great!