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Johnson Publishing’s Artwork up for Auction

by richard04125

Journal-isms will appear infrequently until the end of February, while its author is on vacation.

‘Tremendous Interest’; Valued at $1.2 Million+
Jeffries Drops Biggie Into Impeachment Trial
Keith Woods Named NPR Chief Diversity Officer
Year-Long Collaboration to Focus on Latino Vote
Pressley Chooses The Root to Reveal Hair Loss
CNN’s Abby Phillip Criticized After Debate
Site Lists Latino Columnists We Should Watch
Lehrer Left Behind a Set of Principles
Jaramogi, Nance, Pruitt, Rogers Among Passings
Short Takes

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“Homage to Marion Perkins,” carved granite, mounted on a wooden base, circa 1961-63. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000. (Margaret Burroughs via Chicago Tribune)

‘Tremendous Interest’; Valued at $1.2 Million+

“Last year, Johnson Publishing, the parent company behind Ebony and Jet magazines, filed for liquidation, ending the historic enterprise’s 77-year run. By July, a quartet of foundations teamed up at the 11th hour to purchase the company’s historic archives of images, video, and audio recordings,” Taylor Dafoe reported Jan. 3 for artnet News.

“But the fate of the artwork that adorned the company’s famous headquarters in downtown Chicago — including pieces by Carrie Mae Weems, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and Kenneth Victor Young — remained less certain.

“Now, those works are set to be sold. On January 30, Swann Galleries in New York will host a sale dedicated to the painting, sculptures, etchings, and other objects by 75 African American artists featured in Johnson’s offices. A free-and-public exhibition held five days prior to the sale will mark the first time these works will have been shown outside of the company. . . .”

Alexandra Nelson, communications director for the Swann Auction Galleries, told Journal-isms Thursday there is “tremendous interest” in the auction. The gallery generally has 70 people in the room bidding for African American art, and more will be bidding online.

Dafoe also wrote, “On the walls hung a number of notable works that, later this month, will make their way to New York for the auction: an installation of seven framed photographs with etched glass by Carrie Mae Weems (estimated to go for $100,000 to $150,000 at Swann’s sale); a crepuscular canvas from 1912 by Henry Ossawa Tanner ($150,000 to $250,000); bronze busts by Richmond Barthé and Elizabeth Catlett (both estimated at $50,000 to $75,000); and many others. . . .”

Robert Channick wrote Jan. 2 in the Chicago Tribune:

“The collection, which includes works by both famous and lesser-known African American artists, is valued at upwards of $1.2 million. The auction proceeds will be used to pay back former CEO Desiree Rogers for $2.7 million in loans she made to Johnson Publishing and other secured claims against the company, pending approval next week from a Chicago federal bankruptcy judge.

“ ‘Desiree will have the first cut at the art auction proceeds,’ said Neville Reid, a Chicago bankruptcy attorney representing the trustee. . . .”

Judge Jack B. Schmetterer agreed on Jan. 8, saying Rogers and Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of company founders John H. and Eunice Johnson, are entitled to their claims if there are no challenges by Feb. 14.

After Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, referenced the Notorious B.I.G. during the Senate’s impeachment trial, Trevor Noah said, “I bet it’s only a matter of time before Mitch McConnell responds with a rap lyric of his own: ‘My name is Mitch and I don’t have a jaw / I love the Senate and sawing mawww.’” (Credit: Comedy Central)

Jeffries Drops Biggie Into Impeachment Trial

“On Tuesday night, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) dropped a lyrical bomb on the Senate floor during President Trump’s impeachment trial,” Marlow Stern wrote Wednesday, updated Thursday for the Daily Beast.

“In response to a query by Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, Jeffries, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, responded by shouting-out Brooklyn’s finest: ‘We are here, sir, to follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the Constitution, and present the truth to the American people. That is why we are here, Mr. Sekulow, and if you don’t know, now you know.’ (The line comes from the Notorious B.I.G. classic ‘Juicy.’)

“ ‘Ohhhh! And if you don’t know, now you know!’ exclaimed The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah on Wednesday night. ‘That’s right! Congressman Hakeem Jeffries just quoted Biggie on the floor of Congress. The only thing I wish is that he’d used the entire line. That would have been amazing. He’s like, ‘If you don’t know, now you know, n*ggaaaaa!’ because if that happened, black people would have been out celebrating in the streets, it would have been MLK Day Part II. ‘” . . .”

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Keith Woods Named NPR Chief Diversity Officer

Keith Woods, NPR’s vice president of newsroom training and diversity, has been promoted to the newly created position of position of chief diversity officer, NPR announced Thursday.

“As a part of the executive leadership team, Woods (pictured; photo by Allison Shelley) will guide NPR’s push to expand the diversity of its audience across NPR and help build a more diverse and inclusive organization, an announcement said.

“I want NPR to reflect diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do. As an organization we should be leaders in providing news and cultural programming that speaks to our richly diverse country and connects with an audience that looks and sounds like America – all while creating a welcoming and supportive workplace for all,” NPR CEO John Lansing said in the announcement, echoing sentiments of his recent predecessors.

Lansing said he was promoting Woods “To elevate and expand the role of diversity in our thinking and in our work,” and said Woods would be “a thought partner to me and the rest of the executive team, helping us set goals and craft a diversity plan that is responsive to – and accountable to – our staff and the public we serve.”

Woods will report directly to the CEO and continue his leadership and advising roles in key areas. His team will grow to support that work, the announcement said.

Woods came to NPR in 2010 “to lead the organization’s diversity strategy and has worked with the newsroom on a multi-year effort to increase the diversity of sources. He has trained the staffs of more than 30 public media stations from Canton, New York, to Juneau, Alaska. Before joining NPR, Woods was Dean of Faculty of The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Florida. . . .”​


Top row, from left: Esmy Jimenez (KUOW in Seattle), Martha Dalton (WABE in Atlanta), Stella Chávez (KERA in Texas), Daniel Rivero (WLRN in Miami). Bottom row, from left: Monica Campbell (‘The World’), Michel Marizco (KJZZ in Phoenix), Naomi Prioleau (WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C.) and Tania Karas (‘The World’).

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Year-Long Collaboration to Focus on Latino Vote

“The World,” the daily global news and analysis program from PRX, WGBH, and the BBC, Tuesday announced “Every 30 Seconds,” a collaborative public media reporting project tracing the young Latino electorate ahead of the 2020 national election.

Funded by a $300,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ‘Every 30 Seconds’ will report on the “issues, influences, concerns, and challenges driving decision-making and turnout among young Latino voters across the United States,” the announcement continued.
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“According to a recent count, approximately every 30 seconds, a Latino citizen in the United States reaches voting age (18). Further, 32 million Latinos are projected to be eligible to vote in 2020, up from 2016 and now one of the largest shares of nonwhite voters. Through deep engagement within communities and among Latino voters, ‘Every 30 Seconds’ will delve into the complexities of demographics, language, law, and inequities within political systems.

“This year-long project will launch in February with regular broadcasts on ‘The World’ accompanied by digital components. From its newsroom in Boston, ‘The World’ and Senior Editor Daisy Contreras will lead production of stories for national broadcast in partnership with public radio stations across the country. Digital Editor Tania Karas will lead production of digital stories and interactives.  . . .”

Contributing stations include KERA in Dallas; KJZZ in Phoenix; PBS in San Diego, Calif.; KUOW in Seattle; WABE in Atlanta; WLRN in Miami and WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., told The Root, “I think it’s important that I’m transparent about this new normal.”

Pressley Chooses The Root to Reveal Hair Loss

Last week, many women “who suffer from the autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss watched U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s emotional video on the Root about the condition that’s left her bald,” Elizabeth Wellington wrote Tuesday for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Some cried, some nodded in understanding. And all of them felt relieved. Here was someone giving a public voice to an often-private suffering.

“Pressley, a 45-year-old Democrat from Massachusetts, is known in fashion and political circles for her elegant Senegalese twists, extensions that matched the texture of her own hair.

“Those long twists, Pressley says in the seven-minute video, weren’t just a part of her personal identity. They helped define her political brand. Not to mention, she always heard from girls she inspired to be proud of the hair God gave them. That says a lot in a world that puts a premium on little black girls having long, straight hair. But now, with alopecia, there wasn’t any hair in which to even attach the two-strand-twist extensions anymore.

“So, last Thursday, wearing a stunning black-and-gold blouse, Pressley informed us of her new reality as a bald woman.”

Danielle Belton, editor of the Root, explained to Journal-isms Wednesday by email, “We were approached by Pressley’s people about her doing a reveal with The Root about her losing her hair to alopecia.

“This was thanks to my intrepid staff, who has worked with Pressley on various stories on The Root over the past year, in particular, staff writer Anne Branigin, who wrote about Pressley’s iconic Senegalese twists, and my video team, including producer Jessica Moulite (who also detailed her own struggle with hair loss in a follow-up story) and my senior video producer Ashley Velez.

“We were honored that Pressley [entrusted] The Root with this very sensitive and important story. It was an honor to bring this video to fruition of her telling her own story, in her own words for our video series ‘A Word.’ It was a powerful and affirming experience for all.”

CNN’s Abby Phillip Criticized After Debate

The final Democratic presidential debate before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses saw CNN moderator Abby Phillip (pictured) criticized for her performance.

“It wasn’t long, however, before attention turned to the ‘sizzling feud’ (CNN’s words) that dominated coverage in the run-up to the debate: the claim — reported by CNN, then made by [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren herself — that [Sen. Bernie] Sanders privately told Warren that a woman can’t win the White House in 2020,” Jon Allsop reported for Columbia Journalism Review.

“Sanders denied having said such a thing. Phillip asked Sanders to reiterate his denial, but rather than asking Warren to respond to it, proceeded as if the denial hadn’t happened . . . “

Joe Concha added for the Hill, “Critics of the exchange, including some members of the media, argued that it was unfair for Phillip to frame the question to Warren that presented as fact that Sanders had said a woman couldn’t win the White House. The criticism came from media commentators such as NPR’s David Folfenflik and National Review’s Rich Lowry.”

Collage by Alan López for Remezcla

Site Lists Latino Columnists We Should Watch

While the attention of the rest of us was elsewhere, the website remezcla.com has been compiling lists of Latino journalists we should be watching.

“Journalism is overwhelmingly white,” Yara Simón wrote for the site seven months ago. “As a matter of fact, a 2018 Pew Research Center analysis found that 77 percent of newsroom employees – those working in newspapers, broadcasting, and internet publishing – were non-Hispanic whites.

“This makes newsroom employees less diverse than other parts of the US workforce, which means that we don’t always have representation in media or ownership of our stories. In an industry that still hasn’t figured out how to embrace people of color, it’s then not surprising that it’s difficult to find enough Latinos [as] columnists.

“But they definitely do exist, and they’re writing about everything from niche subjects to detailed accounts of our histories, all the while weighing in on the topics that dominate national headlines. Below, check out eight Latino columnists that should be on your radar. . . . “

John Paul Brammer, who answers “life’s queerest questions”

Nubia Willman, immigration lawyer

Gary Suarez, who writes about Latin trap music

Concepción de León, culture writer, contributing to El Espace in the New York Times

Yesika Salgado, columnist on sex and relationships

Esther J. Cepeda, nationally syndicated Chicago-based columnist.

Nancy Flores, Latino culture in Austin, Texas

Ilyanna Maisonet, San Francisco food columnist

Lehrer Left Behind a Set of Principles

“PBS NewsHour” co-founder Jim Lehrer, “a giant in journalism known for his tenacity and dedication to simply delivering the news,” died peacefully in his sleep at home on Thursday, at age 85, PBS announced.

Lehrer left behind a statement of his journalistic principles, and he was shown reading them in the on-air tributes:

“Do nothing I cannot defend.

“Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.

“Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.

“Assume the viewer is as smart and caring and good a person as I am.

“Assume the same about all people on whom I report.

“Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.

“Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories and clearly label everything.

“Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should be allowed to attack another anonymously.

“I am not in the entertainment business.”

Jaramogi, Nance, Pruitt, Rogers Among Passings

Michael Days, vice president for diversity and inclusion at The Inquirer, said, “Heshimu was a remarkable human being, a terrific journalist, and entrepreneur who was multitasking on all kinds of platforms long before most of us had a clue. And he did not do drive-by conversations. They were usually nuanced and thoughtful and designed to make you think deeply about your own positions, and maybe challenge yourself. Through it all, there would usually be a lot of laughter involved. He’s been my brother for almost 35 years. It’s going to take me more than a minute to make peace with his passing.”

  • Ron Rogers (sketch by himself), who while at the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune in the early 2000s was the only African American staff editorial cartoonist at a daily newspaper, died Jan. 7 after a heart attack, his wife, Donna Whitaker Rogers, told Journal-isms. He was 65. “At the time [of] his death, he was producing political cartoons as a freelancer. He also produced a blog at www.getintoon.wordpress.com/,” according to the family obituary. He later was political cartoonist for The Chronicle of Winston-Salem, N.C., where his wife was managing editor.

Short Takes

  • “In yet another sign that voters live in very different media bubbles,” a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll found that Democrats cited voter suppression as the greatest threat to the 2020 election, Brett Neely reported Tuesday for NPR. “Voter fraud topped the list for Republicans. Moreover, women and nonwhite respondents are considerably more likely than men and white voters to say that their own vote won’t be counted. . . .”
  • With redesign of journal-isms.com accomplished, Journal-isms is seeking someone to maintain the site. Must be familiar with WordPress. Those interested may make contact via < https://www.journal-isms.com/contact/>.
  • Todd Steven Burroughs, (pictured, by Sharon Farmer) Newark, N.J.-based public historian, media consultant, contractor, author and blogger, put out a call on Facebook Thursday for donations to Journal-isms Inc. as his birthday fundraiser. Burroughs called Journal-isms “mandatory reading for all journalists of color! . . . When Richard Prince quotes you (as he has me), you are a notable :)” He hopes to raise $1,000. Thanks, Todd!
  • My research “has found that some protest movements have more trouble than others in getting coverage that treats them and their issues seriously,” Danielle K. Kilgo, assistant professor at Indiana University, wrote Jan. 16 for the Conversation. “In a recent study, my co-author Summer Harlow and I looked at local and metropolitan newspaper coverage of protests. We found that narratives about the women’s march and anti-Trump protests gave voice to protesters and significantly explored their grievances. On the other end of the spectrum, protests about anti-black racism and indigenous people’s rights received the least legitimizing coverage. . . .”
Sharon Green of the Orlando Sentinel editorial board: “That’s why some of us have stayed in a business that doesn’t always love us back.”
  • Alden Global Capital recently bought a 32% stake in Tribune Publishing. Alden is “a hedge fund described by one Washington Post writer as ‘one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism,’ Scott Maxwell wrote Jan. 17 for the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune property. Maxwell was explaining why he is not accepting buyout offers. He quoted others at the Sentinel, such as Shannon Green, columnist and editorial board member, who “has seen her work change lives, like the time she wrote about a smart, young, poor man who couldn’t afford college — and a reader responded by paying his tuition. ‘That’s why some of us have stayed in a business that doesn’t always love us back,’ she said. . . .”
  • “Longtime anchor Dunia Elvir (pictured) is off the air at Telemundo 52″ in Los Angeles, Veronica Villafañe reported Jan. 15 in her Media Moves column. “She last anchored a newscast at noon on Friday, January 10.” Villafañe also wrote, “Her removal from the anchor desk took place a week after she conducted an interview that aired January 3 with the president of a Los Angeles-based Salvadoran community organization under scrutiny. . . . Social media reaction to the interview was swift, accusing Elvir of asking ‘softball’ questions and of conflict of interest, because a line in her bio on the station’s website stated she is a member of the organization. That bio has been scrubbed from the website. . . .”
  • Sundra Hominik (pictured), most recently a senior editor for McClatchy Georgia, has joined the Baltimore Sun as content editor for magazines. She has been features editor at the News Journal in Wilmington, entertainment editor at the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La., executive editor for GateHouse Media Delaware in Dover, Del., and senior editor/information at the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch.
  • “New Jersey will be releasing the remainder of the $235 million in spending Gov. Phil Murphy froze when he signed the state budget in June 2019. This includes the first $1 million of the $2 million earmarked for the Civic Information Consortium, a first-of-its-kind initiative to strengthen local-news coverage and boost civic engagement across the state,” the advocacy group Free Press reported Jan. 16. “This innovative nonprofit, which Free Press Action conceived of and advocated for,. . . will invest in valuable local-news coverage in parts of the state that have become news deserts and will elevate the voices of people of color and others who have been systematically ignored by many media outlets. . . .”
  • “On 13th January, Good Morning Britain’s host Piers Morgan invited columnist and author Afua Hirsch to discuss her piece in the New York Times, which cited racism as a major reason for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s decision to spread their time across the UK and North America,” begins a Jan. 15 “open letter” from InfluencHer: “a collective of 100 Black British women from the worlds of Media, Law, Health, Education, Publishing and their supporters.” They also wrote, “Having to engage, articulate, and explain racism again and again to predominantly white hosts, white men, and white guests is draining and exhausting. It is frankly traumatizing and wearing to black people who continuously find themselves having to explain the presence and impact of racism to people who refuse to be educated. . . .”
  • Initial assessments showed that ESPN reporter Edward Aschoff (pictured), who died at 34 on Christmas Eve, succumbed to pneumonia. “But his fiancée Katy Berteau announced on Wednesday that further testing revealed that he had stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma in his lungs,” ason Owens reported Jan. 15 for Yahoo Sports. Owens also wrote, “Aschoff’s [doctors] apparently didn’t know that he was stricken by the cancer until a lung biopsy was completed. . . .”
  • Dean Steve Coll and the Alumni Association of the Columbia Journalism School announced the recipients of the 2020 Alumni Awards, the school announced Jan. 16. “The winners are Michelle Johnson, ’82 M.S., associate professor, Boston University; Donna Ladd, ’01 M.S., editor in chief and owner, The Jackson Free Press (Mississippi); Natasha Lebedeva, ’94 M.S., director, international affairs, NBC News. The J-School is also presenting the First Decade Award, for graduates of the last 10 years, to Alexandra Bell, ’13 M.S., multidisciplinary artist, and Robert Fieseler, ’13 M.S., author of “Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs and Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation.” (W.W. Norton, 2018). . . .”

(Credit: Erica Wright, Birmingham Times)

“In many ways, Jackson was a journalist ahead of his time, Mangun said. The crusading editor kept detailed records of officer involved shootings, she said.

“Today websites like MappingPoliceViolence.org and media organizations including the Washington Post compile data on officer involved shootings much as Jackson did beginning in the early 1940s with the limited resources available to him,” Mangun said. “. . . Jackson wrote extensively about violence in Birmingham during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s when there were 34 bombings plus seven frightening near misses of black owned homes, businesses and churches. . . . He edited the Birmingham World until September 10, 1975, when he died at the age of 67. . . .”

Videojournalist Whitney Oickle teaching camera techniques at Global News Halifax. (Credit: Canadian Association of Black Journalists)
  • “Statistics from 2017 show that Hispanics make up 17% of the labor force,” JD Swerzenski, Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey and Eric Hoyt of the University of Massachusetts Amherst wrote Wednesday for the Conversation. “However, they occupy only 4.3% of executive positions in the U.S. Hispanic representation is roughly equal to that of black executives and somewhat lower than Asian American executives. The gap between labor force and executive representation is wider among Hispanics than any other group. . . .”
The Nieman Foundation’s 2020 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellows. Top row: Lewis Raven Wallace, Mercy Adhiambo, Amy Silverman, Elizabeth Toohey. Bottom row: Wendy Lu, Nicole Barton, Tomer Ovadia and Erika Dilday. (Credit: Nieman Foundation for Journalism)
  • The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard announced Jan. 16 it had selected eight media innovators as the 2020 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellows. They are: Mercy Adhiambo, a features writer at the Standard in Kenya; Nicole Barton, an audience development associate at KQED in San Francisco; Erika Dilday, executive director of the Futuro Media Group; Wendy Lu, an editor and producer for HuffPost; Tomer Ovadia, a software engineer at Google; Amy Silverman, a freelance journalist and advisory board member of the National Center on Disability and Journalism; Elizabeth Toohey, assistant professor of English at Queensborough Community College, City University of New York; and Lewis Raven Wallace, a freelance journalist and co-founder and national program director of Press On, a Southern collective for movement journalism, which focuses on liberation and racial justice issues.
  • C-SPAN 3, the American History Channel, is airing a talk by historian Michael Searles on “Black Cowboys in the American West: On the Range, on the Stage, Behind the Badge” on Saturday at 9:05 p.m. ET. “We see images of black cowboys as Professor Searles discusses their experiences from the early 19th century to the present day,” the network says.
  • In Haiti, “many journalists report working in dangerous and even life-threatening conditions.” Chantal Flores reported Jan. 17 for Columbia Journalism Review. “Public perception of journalism has deteriorated; protestors accuse media outlets of supporting the government, and attacks on the press have escalated. Journalists are also harassed by counter-protesters and police from the opposing side. They report physical attacks, death threats, and defamation campaigns on social media. . . .”

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.   Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms-owner@yahoogroups.com

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