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Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 111 No. 47
Two Sections
thenewpittsburghcourier Published Weekly $1.00
NOVEMBER 18-24, 2020
CELEBRATING 58 YEARS!
COURIER EXCLUSIVE
Lisa Washington leaves KDKA-TV
IT’S BEEN 58 YEARS! REVEREND WILLIAM CALLAWAY, pictured at right with his wife, First Lady Melva Leona Callaway, celebrated 58 years as pastor of Mt. Olive First Baptist Church of Clairton. The celebration was held, Nov. 7. See more photos on Page A6. (Photo by J.L. Martello)
LISA WASHINGTON
Artists to receive $500 if artwork Becomes evening anchor in Scranton selected for Pitt’s BLM exhibit by Rob Taylor Jr.
by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned exclusively that the University of Pittsburgh will showcase the artwork of local artists which best describes what “Black Lives Matter” means to them. The exhibition will be titled, “Don’t Look Away: Because Mattering is the Minimum.” Approximate-
COURIER EXCLUSIVE ly 30 pieces of art will be selected for display onto mesh canvas panels, which will be seen outdoors on Pitt’s main campus and other campuses. The artists whose artwork is selected for the exhibition will receive $500. “‘Black Lives Matter’ as a slogan is the culmination
of hundreds of years of effort, fighting, resilience, and sacrifice on the part of Black leaders, activists, trailblazers, and visionaries,” read an overview of the initiative on the Pitt website. “Following the tradition of the United States’ Civil Rights Movement, it is the call demanding that everyone, from our government to our neighbors, recognize the patterns of structural harms and inequity that target Black people on a social, economic, and political level.” Pitt said the exhibition “will recognize the work done and the work still left to do to achieve true equity: to not only honor the lives we have lost and affirm that Black lives do indeed matter, but also to celebrate and spotlight the Black experience as essential to our community’s future. Works might retrieve the lessons learned from past generations about love, family, and support-
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ing one another; reflect on breaking cycles of generational trauma and how to create new and just futures; respond to the contemporary movement and how it has changed the public consciousness; and remind the world that outside of death, there is
DR. KATHY HUMPHREY is Pitt’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Engagement. She is leading the charge on this initiative.
Black life. Because mattering is the minimum.” The criteria for submission includes: open to artists of Western Pa. and to Pitt students, faculty, staff and alumni; no more
than three submissions per artist or artist group; artwork must be able to be reproduced at a high resolution in photo or video form; artwork must be submitted online by Dec. 1, 2020, at midnight eastern. The selection committee will be comprised of Pitt representatives and community members from local Black arts organizations, the Courier has learned. Pitt also wants artists who submit works to respect the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, specifically: embracing the concept of a civil community, which abhors violence, theft and exploitation of others; supporting a culture of diversity by respecting the rights of those who differ from themselves; contributing to the development of a caring community where compassion for others and freedom of thought and expression are valued; and honoring, challenging and contributing to the scholarly heritage left by those who preceded them, while working to make the world a better place for SEE BLM EXHIBIT A2
Courier Staff Writer
Oftentimes, what you experience early in life sticks with you for a lifetime. As a fifth-grader at Bennettsville Elementary School in Bennettsville, South Carolina, Lisa Washington was enamored with a local television news anchor who visited her school. The way that news anchor spoke, the way that news anchor related to the students, the way that news anchor carried themselves…it had the young Lisa Washington hooked. On Friday, Nov. 13, Washington, now married with two children, anchored the noon newscast on KDKA-TV (2) in Pittsburgh, her professional home for
will begin anchoring the 6, 7, 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts later this month. Becoming a weekday evening anchor in local TV news is considered prime real estate. While there are some reporters who love being in the field and don’t want to sit at the anchor desk, many reporters, like Washington, love the anchor desk. It takes continuous effort and talent to get promoted from reporting to anchoring on a regular basis. “You bring reporting skills to the anchor desk,” Washington told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, Nov. 12, “but I also feel that at the anchor desk, you have that commanding presence to connect with the viewer
Washington anchored her final newscast on KDKA at noon, Friday, Nov. 13. She will anchor evening newscasts at WNEPTV in Scranton later this month. the past five and a half years. It was her last day at KDKA. She accepted an offer to become a main anchor at WNEP-TV (16) in Scranton, Pa. Washington
and to share their stories. I was interested in anchoring because it allows me to show more of my personalSEE WASHINGTON A3