Posted by Pasadena Weekly Staff | June 4, 2015
Author and longtime local journalist Justin Chapman’s story on 83-year-old Joan Williams, who was prevented from riding in the 1958 Rose Parade as Miss Crown City because she is African American but was invited to ride on a float in the 2015 parade following Chapman’s reporting, is among a number of Pasadena Weekly stories nominated for awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.
Pasadena-based KPPC 83.9 FM was also nominated last week for several awards to be presented at the 57th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards ceremony June 28 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Winners will be announced at the event.
Veteran KPCC commentator Larry Mantle, a perennial Press Club Award recipient, was nominated this year four times in three categories: One, along with other staff members, for Best Personality Profile/Interview; two times, also with other station journalists, for Entertainment Reporting/Criticism; and for Radio Journalist of the Year. KPPC’s Alex Cohen was also nominated in the Best Talk/Public Affairs category.
Editorial Cartoonist Steve Greenberg, who formerly drew for PW and currently works for Ventura County Reporter, PW’s sister paper, was nominated for both a Press Club Award and an Association of Alternative Newsmedia Award (AAN). Winners in the AAN competition will be announced July 18.
Along with Chapman, whose story is titled “Justice on Parade,” other PW writers recognized by the Press Club are Arts Editor Carl Kozlowski in the Best Personality Profile category for his story about comedian Jimmy Dore, and Deputy Editor André Coleman and Editor Kevin Uhrich in the Best Investigative Series category for a collection of stories on the officer-involved shooting death of 19-year-old Kendrec McDade.
Coleman and Uhrich recently won a Certificate of Achievement from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, CNPA, for one of those stories, “When Worlds Collide.”
In October, Kozlowski profiled author, activist and Pacifica Radio personality Sonali Kohatkar, a former scientist at Caltech’s Spitzer Science Center, host of KPFK 90.7 FM’s “Uprising,” and now also host of a new television show on Free Speech TV called “Uprising with Sonali.” Along with her work for Pacifica Radio, Kohatkar’s TV show has been nominated in the Best Television/Film category.
At the event, Willow Bay, director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, will receive the Joseph M. Quinn Award for Lifetime Achievement.
In addition, Charlie Hebdo Editor-in-Chief Gerard Biard and current lead cartoonist Renald Luzier will receive the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism, presented by the murdered reporter’s parents Judea and Ruth Pearl. Shane Smith and his VICE Team will receive the Public Service Award in Journalism, and Charlie Rose, Gayle King, Norah O’Donnell and “CBS This Morning” will be presented with the President’s Award.
The event, hosted by comedian Alonzo Bodden, will pay tribute to Rick Orlov, Al Martinez and Stan Chambers, three leading Los Angeles journalists who died recently.