Tattered Cover is thrilled to host the launch of Cleo Parker Robinson's coloring book, Coloring with Cleo! Cleo will be speaking about CPRD's legacy in Denver as well as signing books on Saturday March 4th at our Colfax location from 1-2:30pm. Coloring with Cleo will be available for purchase at this event. This event is free to the public and no ticket is required for entry.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Illustrated by Adri Norris, Coloring With Cleo layers images which share the story of Cleo Parker Robinson’s life. Each page shares stories of family, art, and the foundational Village of people with whom she grew up, mentored her, partnered with her, and shaped her career as a modern dancer, Choreographer,Teaching Artist, and community leader. Norris’ use of 19th Century African Akan/Ghanan Adinkra shapes in the background of her illustrations link the symbolic values of the human condition, death, wisdom, and love with the stories on each page. While Ms. Parker Robinson is a locally known and loved artist, many in her Denver hometown don’t realize the international reach of her work and collaboration with by international icons of music and dance. Coloring With Cleo includes cultural anthropologist and modern dance icon Katherine Dunham, modern dance master Donald McKayle, Poet Laureate Maya Angelou, musician Baba Chuck Davis, Colorado’s Folklorico icon Jeanette Trujillo, and many members of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble since 1970. As an African American woman of mixed race born and growing up during the segregated Jim Crow era, Ms. Parker Robinson built a cultural anchor in Denver and in the international modern dance community gathering local leaders and dance masters to share stories of social justice. The book loving conveys her values of Inspiring Movement, and embracing One Spirit/Many Voices.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cleo Parker Robinson is founder, artistic director and choreographer of the 50-year-old Denver-based artistic institution, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. She leads a professional dance Ensemble, Youth and Junior Youth Ensembles, a Dance Academy, an International Summer Dance Institute, a 240-seat theatre that bears her name, and a myriad of community outreach programs. She continues to be the recipient of honors and awards from civic, community, and artistic organizations around the world, and is called on by a myriad of organizations and performance venues to bring her Ensemble for performances, and to conduct workshops, master classes, and motivational seminars. Her philosophy of “One Spirit, Many Voices” is reflected in all she does, and is the vision she brings to everyone she meets, everywhere she goes.
A master teacher/choreographer and cultural ambassador she has taught and performed with her Ensemble in such diverse places as Iceland, Singapore, Hawaii, Nassau, Belize, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, throughout Europe, and throughout the African continent. People of all ages and backgrounds have participated in Ms. Parker Robinson’s workshops and master classes at conservatories, universities and neighborhood dance centers worldwide Ms. Parker Robinson’s awards include the Colorado’s Governor’s Award for Excellence (1974), Denver’s Mayor’s Award (1979), induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame (1989) and the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame (1994). Recognized in Who’s Who in America Colleges and Universities she holds Honorary Doctorate from Denver University (1991), an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Colorado College (2003), and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Regis University in Denver (2008). Ms. Parker Robinson was a long-standing member of the Board of Directors for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and in 1998 Cleo Parker Robinson Dance became an affiliate of the Center.
In 1998, President Clinton named Ms. Parker Robinson as one of two artists to be appointed to the National Council on the Arts where she served until 2005 as one of the two appointed members of the fourteen-member council in Washington D.C. In 2005, Ms. Parker Robinson received a Kennedy Center Medal of Honor during the Center’s “Masters of African American Choreographers” series. Also in 2005, Ms. Parker Robinson received the King M. Trimble Community Award for service to the Denver community.
Ms. Robinson received the first-ever Peaceful Heart Award from Mile-Hi Church, and was honored by the Colorado Gospel Hall of Fame, and the Metro State College Plain & Fancy Ball. In 2006, she received the “Jill” Award from the South Suburban Denver Chapter of Jack & Jill of America, Inc., honoring her work with young people. Also in 2006, Ms. Parker Robinson was honored as a “Pioneer In Black Dance” by the Dynamic Dance Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2007, she received the Huntington’s Disease of America Distinguished Leadership Award., the “Fairfax B. Holmes Community Award” from The Denver Links, Inc. and the “Unsung Heroes Mountain Award” from African American Leadership Institute. In 2008, she was awarded the President’s Award of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, the Civil Rights Award of the Anti-Defamation League, and the Civil Rights Medallion of the Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship program.
In 2009, Ms. Robinson received the Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award for Service to the Community, and the Dr. Martin King Jr. / William “Bill” Roberts Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award. Most recently, she was awarded the 2009 NEWSED Civil Rights Award, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award from the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver (2010).