Thursday October 4th

PHOTO EXHIBIT in the Lunt Lobby of the Fine Arts Center.  The Merl Humphrey Photography-sponsored photo contest will be on display with the theme of “What Inspires Me.”  Winners will be announced at the Chamber Coffee.

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. — Ft. Scott Chamber of Commerce Coffee at the Gordon Parks Museum.

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. —“Leadbelly” film in the Gordon Parks Museum. FREE.

Friday October 5th

8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Registration open outside of the Museum.

9:05 a.m. – 9:50 a.m.: “Leadbelly and Irene: Heartbeat of the Musical Frontier” with Megan Felt.  Megan Felt, Program Director at the Lowell Milken Center in Fort Scott, created this short documentary on Huddie Ledbetter when she was a student at Uniontown High School.  FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center/Gordon Parks Museum.  FREE

10:05-11:30: “A Conversation with Roger Mosley.”  The 2018 “Choice of Weapons Award” honoree, Mr. Mosley played Huddie Ledbetter in the Gordon Parks-directed film “Leadbelly” and starred in the popular television series, “Magnum P.I.”  Discussion led by Karole Graham, Big Mabel in “The Learning Tree” and Laura May in “Leadbelly.”  FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center/Theatre.  FREE

12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.—Grab a sack lunch from the lobby ($8-purchase that day) and join us in the museum for PARKS POETRY OUT LOUD, sponsored by the Bourbon County Arts Council.  Poetry Out Loud is a contest & reading of selected poems of Gordon Parks.  ANYONE may enter.  No preregistration –just show up!  Prize money of $100 (First Place), $75 (Second Place), and $50 (Third Place). (The eight poems are on the gordonparkscenter.org website.)  FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center/Gordon Parks Museum.  FREE

2:00 p.m. Guided Trolley Tour of Gordon Parks’ Fort Scott.  Meet at the entrance of the FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center.  See the places in Fort Scott that are part of Gordon Parks’ history.  Fee: $7.

5:00 p.m.—Meet and Greet at Sharkey’s Pub.  Drop by and meet Roger Mosley and Karole Graham, “Big Mabel” in The Learning Tree.”

7:00 p.m.—Friday Night Concert in the Park featuring the music of blues guitarist Lem Sheppard, Heritage Park Pavilion at 1^st and Main Street in downtown Fort Scott.  Food Vendors will be open at 5:00 p.m.

Bring your lawn chair! FREE

Saturday, October 6th

9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Registration open outside of the Museum.

9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Kid’s Art Workshop–Art activities for kids age 5-12.  FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center/Meeting Rooms.  Fee: $5-payable the day of the workshop.

9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. – Dimensional Art Workshop-Museum $10  Participants will experience creating a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork using photography, pastels and/or watercolors.  The finished work will be printed on 11 x 17 paper.  Gordon Parks used this technique in his later years and created beautiful images by creating a background either with pastels, watercolor, etc.  He then used a found object, lit the entire scene on two levels and took a photograph of it.  FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center/Gordon Parks Museum.  Fee: $10-payable the day of the workshop.

12:00—1:30—Lunch on your own.

1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. – “Gordon Parks, Jazz, and Photography,“ with John Mason, Associate Professor, Associate Chair, University of Virginia Department of History. Mason is working on “Gordon Parks and American Democracy,” a book about the ways in which Parks’ Life magazine photo-essays on poverty and the black liberation struggle and the books that he published during the civil rights era made him one of the era’s most significant interpreters of the black experience. FREE

3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.—Guided Trolley Tour of Gordon Parks’ Fort Scott.  Meet at the entrance of the FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center.  See the places in Fort Scott that are part of Gordon Parks’ history.  Fee: $7.                            7:00 p.m. – “Celebration Tribute Dinner.” Dinner and evening of tribute; presentation of the 2018 “Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award” to Roger E. Mosley and a Celebration 15th-year Anniversary retrospective. Liberty Theatre, 113 S. Main.  All seats reserved. Fee: $30.00. (Reserve by Wed., Oct. 3)

Sunday, October 7th

10:00 a.m.—Breakfast at Nate’s Place.  Enjoy breakfast at one of Fort Scott’s finest!  Located on the corner of National & 8^th Street, you’re sure to find something on the menu to please.    Check it out at: lyonstwinmansions.com/nates-place-restaurant. (No ticket required-everyone pays for their own)

For 113 years people have been gathering on Uniontown’s square to celebrate Labor Day.

Vendors dot the treed park, children and adults play games, groups sell food and drink for the annual picnic. There is also recognition of the oldest present at the picnic, the longest residency in Uniontown and who drove the farthest to attend.

Through the years other events have been added, a children’s fishing derby, a talent show, rodeos, and community church service.

And there is a parade.

The 2018  Old Settler’s Picnic was September 3  this year.

Mary Bruner was honored as the grand marshall of the parade, which always fills the town square perimeter with visitors.

The parade was filled with children, past and future Uniontown High School graduates, fire volunteers, motorcycles, old machinery,  floats, politicians, and horses.