20 20 Winner of
Vol. 71, No. 47
the Pulitzer Prize
Thursday, December 31, 2020
$1.00
WORLD TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN EMILY WEISBERG
IFFAT MAHMUD-KHAN
There’s always something that’s difficult. There’s a never-ending list. I don’t think it should take another century for things to move forward.
JOSHUA BERRIOS
It wasn’t a question of whether I was going to cut employees. It was just a question of how am I going to make sure that I can meet these requirements.
LEAH FERSTER
SURA JESELSOHN
I can take rejection and denial, but it feels awful being ignored entirely. Publishing it myself gives me control over it.
DAN HARELICK
There was an emotional connection to the dearth of what people are living with there. It was pretty horrifying that, as humanity, we’re allowing it to happen.
ROOSEVELT SPIVEY
I got four generations that I am working on right now, and the fifth one is in process. I know all the people in the neighborhood like family.
KLAUDIO RROKU
Suddenly I got a boost of energy. I turned around, dropped my phone, and started running. When I felt the step, my mind just lit up. And I said, ‘I’m throwing myself.’
ROSEMARY JIANG
Even though I am still in high school, I understand the biggest impact I can make is to start educating the young. Because my school taught me to be the change you want to see.
PAUL KEMPNER
DANIEL NUÑEZ
Some people who walk to The Last Stop for the first time see the interaction that we have with people and our regulars who have been donating food.
Business as usual works for the group that is in power. Going back to business as usual is a code word, or people like me and people of color. It’s a code word from, ‘Well let this blow over and go back.’
We were totally peaceful protesters, but we were met with police who were totally militarized.
If we are lifelong learners, then we can learn from the kids. I explained that, in my classroom, I’m learning from you. As you’re going to learn from me. As you’re going to learn from your peers.
I always want to make sure that if I give any message to young people, it’s that they can admit they don’t know. And once they admit they don’t know, they can learn.
We’re going to be dancing and doing some poetry in the show. We’re all from West Africa, so we wanted to implement that and show where the roots of Black history come from.
ROXANA VAZQUEZ
CAROLINE AZEEZ
JERRY GOODMAN
We’re still living in a heterosexist society. And so he said, ‘You know, I’m always having to come out. I’m not just out. It’s never finished.’
Before I make the video calls, I sort of brace myself. I know that these kids — and even the parents who are home with the kids — are really struggling.
ELIOT ENGEL
You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If you’re not here, then you should be here. If you’re not there, then you should be there.
STEVEN SCHWARTZ
NICK DIAKAKIS
Each step forward we go is costing us more as a business. We are trying to do the best that we can, but at the same time, it is taking a step backwards.
MICHAEL SIMMON
ANDOM GHEBREGHIORGIS
DR. RUTH WESTHEIMER
I can tell you, probably half the people who are sitting on a train what stop they’re going to without looking at their ticket. When you don’t see that, it’s a strange dynamic.
SERGIO VILLAVERDE
LINDA SHRINER-CAHN
At least we can see one another. At least those (vulnerable) individuals can singe their hearts out, which if they were in a room or even standing outside masked, they couldn’t really do safely.
JOSH PIZARRO
When this whole thing is said and done, we need to come together to defeat Donald Trump.
HAWA CAMARA
Social Security does not call you on the phone. The IRS doesn’t call you on the phone either to tell you that you owe them $1,000 or even $50. They’ll send you a letter.
I told him, ‘If you went to a museum and everything was a Picasso, you’d get bored pretty quick.’ I told him that I wasn’t looking for a Picasso. I was looking for what he could make.
As long as nobody was hurt, then it’s fine. This is the most important thing, that people are OK. It’s only material things. We can’t worry about them.
PAMELA CHASEK
MICHAEL HELLER
It’s a small community. The other small brokers help each other out, and people remember you. They’ll come back to you.
They’re getting things done right here at the college. That’s important. To change your immediate surroundings is important.
I just left for an hour. I just want to get out of my house. If I’m going to be cold, I can be outside.
HARRIET FRITZ
VIVIAN OLEEN
We have 850 different families and 850 different situations in terms of how COVID-19 impacted our community. The perseverance that my community showed during this time was truly remarkable, but not surprising.
VISHNU BHARATHRAM Creative writing represents that power to imagine something new and to imagine something different, and to really engage with all the possibilities of that power.
JIMMY BRITT
I know I could have died. I was the same person saying, ‘I can’t breathe.’ I was on the floor, Maced. I was on the floor of the train station, where there’s no ventilation, and I have high blood pressure.
STEPHANIE COGGINS
RICHARD BERROA
We were excited and nervous at the start. Then through March, April, so on, we’re at home, panicking, world ending.
PERRY GROSSMAN
A poll tax, if you think about it in a broader way, is anything that makes the cost of voting expensive. And the cost of voting gets more expensive when you make it harder to vote.
Everyone sees criminal shows like ‘CSI,’ stuff like that. And so they get a perception of, ‘Oh, they are going to find out who robbed me in two seconds.’ No. It takes a lot of hard work.
This time last year, my husband and I went up to the Catskills and we rented a house for two weeks. I was there, pounding away on my laptop, trying to do enough research that I could put together a substantial nomination letter.
RAPHY JACOBSON
ENRIE MORALES
I would like to be able to go to school. I would like to see my friends. I would like to be able to learn calculus in person, because calculus is hard. Zoom calculus is awful.
While one person might feel a lot of anxiety because they’re alone, another person might feel anxiety because they’re being paid too much attention to, and the family is always on top of them.
All of us faced a new reality this year. Get context on Page A2
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