Media Coverage For Griot Drum Awards!

Here's a piece from St. Petersburg's black newspaper, The Weekly Challenger:

Dr. George Curry Keynotes Tampa Bay Association Of Black Journalists Griot Drum Awards
by Joyce Johnson
The Weekly Challenger
Originally posted 11/20/2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The Third Annual Griot Drum Awards and Scholarship Dinner, presented by The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists, was recently held at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies on Thursday, November 15.

These awards honor the achievements of journalists who have written exemplary articles that not only gave information about people of color, their community, and issues that affect them, but also brought insight and thought provoking introspection to that subject matter. The TBABJ also awards an annual scholarship to an undergraduate minority student who is pursuing a career in the field of journalism.

This year there were 15 awards. Among recipients were: Kevin Graham, St. Petersburg Times, for his story “Martin Lee Anderson Autopsy Results”; Nicole Johnson-Hutcheson, also of the St. Petersburg Times for her story “In Mines Depth, South Africa Women Find Equality,” Willie Allen J., for his photo essay on Winky Wright “Life Outside the Ring,” and several staff members from 89.7 FM. Winner of the $1000.00 scholarship was Kistal Roberts. Ms. Roberts is from Ft. Lauderdale and is studying media management at U.S.F in Tampa.

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Here's an excerpt from my blog for the St. Petersburg Times:

George Curry's Challenge to Black Journalists: Be a Thermostat

It's hard to explain what it feels like to be part of an amazing movement.

But, facing a crowd of journalists, students and community notables gathered at the Poynter Institute Thursday for the Griot Drum Awards, it felt like standing at the crest of a giant wave.

Sponsored by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists, the Griot Drum Awards featured honors for 15 area journalists who have excelled in covering people of color. We also gave away a $1,000 scholarship and gathered together a host of people committed to the idea of boosting diversity in journalism.

Our keynote speaker George Curry made the biggest impact, explaining how journalists of color must "reject rejection" and fight to excel in an industry which often seeks to marginalize them. He spoke of his longtime friend, now-deceased former New York Times managing editor Gerald Boyd, and how his career was unfairly cut short because of inaccurate rumors that he mentored serial plagiarist and fabricator Jayson Blair. Both men were black, so a connection was made and Boyd's career never survived it.

Most of all, Curry radiated confidence and conviction, recalling how he got a job at Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch refused to send him there. When an editor put him on the night shift to break his confidence, he wrote his first book during the days.

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