Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2014): Jen Sorensen -- Presentation:
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Description of Pictures: The Herb Block Foundation cordially invites you to The Herblock Prize Award Ceremony & Lecture.
Prize Winner: Jen Sorensen
Lecturer: Bob Woodward
Finalist: Clay Bennett, Editorial Cartoonist for The Chattanooga Times Free Press
Jen Sorensen, 2014 Herblock Prize Winner!
March 4, 2014
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, DC, March 4, 2014 – Jen Sorensen was named the winner of the 2014 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.Sorensen is the first female to win the Prize since it began in 2004.
Jen Sorensen’s cartoons appear in approximately twenty alternative newspapers, including her local weekly, The Austin Chronicle. They are also published regularly in The Nation, Ms. Magazine, The Progressive, Politico, and on a variety of websites, including Daily Kos and NPR.org. Sorensen serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, as well as on the Advisory Board of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University.
The prize is awarded annually by The Herb Block Foundation for “distinguished examples of editorial cartooning that exemplify the courageous independent standard set by Herblock.” The winner receives a $15,000 after-tax cash prize and a sterling silver Tiffany trophy. Sorensen will receive the prize April 29th in a ceremony held at the Library of Congress.
Bob Woodward, associate editor of The Washington Post and prolific author, will deliver the annual Herblock Lecture at the awards ceremony. Previous speakers include: Ben Bradlee, then-Senator Barack Obama, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Ted Koppel, George Stevens Jr., Jim Lehrer, Garry Trudeau and Gwen Ifill.
Judges for this year’s contest were Dan Perkins, pen name Tom Tomorrow, creator of the weekly political cartoon “This Modern World” and winner of the 2013 Herblock Prize; Sara Duke, curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art at the Library of Congress; and Tony Auth, editorial cartoonist at The Philadelphia Inq ...More...
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2014_DC_LOC_SorensenP_140429: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2014): Jen Sorensen -- Presentation (110 photos from 2014)
2014_DC_LOC_SorensenR_140429: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2014): Jen Sorensen -- Reception (150 photos from 2014)
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SOREN1_140429_214.JPG: Bob Woodward
SOREN1_140429_251.JPG: Jen Sorensen
SOREN1_140429_282.JPG: Jen Sorensen receives the 2014 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning
SOREN1_140429_333.JPG: Sorensen's HERBLOCK SPEECH - 4/29/2014
Thanks so much to Marci, Sarah, the judges, and the Herblock Foundation for this incredible honor. Between this award and the fact that I actually have decent health insurance now, drawing cartoons for a living doesn't seem so crazy after all.
I actually owe double thanks " as Marci mentioned, two years ago I was the Herblock Prize Finalist, which came with a $5,000 award. That means at this moment in time, I have the unique distinction of being the cartoonist who has soaked the Herblock Foundation the most since they began doing this. So I have a lot to be grateful for.
These windfalls over the past couple years have helped me worry a little less about my career and my finances, and focus on the job I do best… which is worrying about how humanity is destroying itself. So, once again, thanks.
Another benefit of winning the Herblock is that you get to pretend you're Truman Capote inviting people to the Black and White Ball. The Herblock documentary was called "The Black and the White," so it's not very much of a stretch. If you don't know the story, Capote threw a lavish party in 1966 in honor of Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham, although it could be argued that it was more in honor of himself. Getting invited to the Black and White Ball was the ultimate social compliment. So, congratulations to all of you for being here tonight!
Now, unlike Capote, I fortunately don't have to pay for this. But I do have some guests of honor I'd like to mention.
My parents John and Linda are here tonight, and I'm so glad they could make it. They actually got engaged not far from here, at the base of the Washington Monument, one freezing cold night in 1966. That's also where I happened to stand while I watched the inauguration of Barack Obama on a jumbotron one freezing cold day in 2009.
My parents raised me a couple hours north of here, in Lancaster County, PA, where I had a happy childhood filled with comic books and art supplies. My parents have always encouraged my cartooning habit, and have patiently endured some of my more inconvenient deadlines during holidays and family visits over the years. So thanks for everything, Mom and Dad.
My husband Scott is also here with me tonight. Scott is my cartoon editor, political conversation partner, and best friend. We met at the University of Virginia " having this event in the Thomas Jefferson Building feels eerily appropriate, by the way " and he wooed me with his cartoon book collection. Feel free to take that as dating advice, all you singles out there. Scott, thanks for all you've done.
My last guest of honor is the editor who gave me my start, Cathy Harding. Cathy was the editor of C-VILLE Weekly in Charlottesville, Virginia for many years. In 2002, I had been published a couple places, but not yet in my local altweekly. Cathy agreed to meet me in person in her office, and to my amazement, she offered me a spot in the paper. She's gone beyond the call of duty to help me out over the years. So, cheers to Cathy.
If you look at my life in a nutshell, I grew up the daughter of public schoolteachers, watched a lot of public television " I was into Sesame Street and The Electric Company " went to public schools, attended a great public university, and later worked as a public employee while I started a career drawing cartoons about the public good. In other words, I'm Ayn Rand's worst nightmare. But I like to think I turned out OK.
My cartoons are in the multi-paneled, so-called "alternative" genre. I appreciate that even though Herblock drew in a traditional single-panel style, the Herblock contest has been open-minded about all forms of contemporary political cartoons.
I'm told that I happen to be the first woman to win the Herblock. I'll do my best to represent. I feel a kinship with Janet Yellen, who was appointed the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve, after being preceded by 14 dudes. I only had to wait for 10, and Tom Toles didn't pull an Alan Greenspan and lock it up for 20 years.
To be fair, 1 in 10 is probably an accurate ratio when it comes to political cartoonists, and even that might be a little generous. I thought I'd talk about that tonight, since I get asked about it a lot, and in the future I can just point people to the Youtube video of this speech.
Six years ago, CampusProgress.org, now Generation Progress, asked me to write an essay about why there are so few female political cartoonists. I attributed the disparity to lack of historical precedent; after all, the Mad Men era wasn't that long ago.
I've rarely encountered any overt sexism in my career. My male colleagues, some of whom are here tonight, have been tremendously supportive, helping me "lean in" long before that was a thing. In fact, my friend Clay Bennett, this year's Finalist, is the person who asked me to join the AAEC.
But since then, I've become increasingly troubled by certain observations about the media. If you look at the regular New York Times op-ed columnists " today, in 2014 " there are 2 women and 10 men. 2 to 10! Maybe political cartooning has a limited history of female role models, but last I heard, there was no shortage of women with strong opinions who can write.
And look at what's happened with the shake-up in late night talk shows. Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey used to host Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" " guess which one is now hosting the Tonight Show? Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler also hosted Weekend Update. Guess who filled the 12:30 slot? David Letterman is being replaced by Stephen Colbert, who I like a lot, but I can't help but sense a pattern.
Recently I learned that only one of the individual Pulitzer Prize winners in Journalism this year was female.
There is something going on here, and it's more subtle than Don Draper. The media landscape consists of a bunch of roles waiting to be filled, and we as a society have certain expectations about what the people who fill those roles look like. I can't tell you how many times I've had readers tell me they assumed I was a guy, apparently some Scandinavian expat named Jens Sorensen.
To some extent, I think women in media are up against a sort of dude-to-dude magnetism. Some guys just feel more comfortable talking to and collaborating with other guys. But I think the bigger problem lies in all of us " men and women " in ways we aren't even conscious of. Even the most equality-minded among us have internalized these cultural norms. We could all take a step forward through greater self-awareness. By asking ourselves whose voices we're elevating; by asking who we're inviting to be on panels, who we're interviewing for articles, who we are retweeting and why. And by locking up the menfolk. (Just kidding.)
This all reminds me of my friend Keith Knight, creator of the Knight Life and the K Chronicles. When he was getting started, he would get most of his freelance assignments during Black History month. So he started telling editors, "You know, I'm available to work the rest of the year too!"
Interestingly, there are some fairly prominent female editorial cartoonists in other countries " places you might not expect. I had the pleasure of meeting Doaa al Edl, a well-known cartoonist in Egypt, when she was on a State Department-sponsored tour of the U.S. just after the Arab Spring uprisings. She came up to me after an event in Portland, Oregon, excited to meet another of her kind, and gave me a cool little scarab paperweight that she'd brought all the way from Egypt. It's one of my prized possessions.
The year after that, Doaa had an unpleasant encounter with the Morsi regime, which charged her with blasphemy for depicting Adam and Eve in a cartoon. She and the publisher of her newspaper were sued, and her life was threatened. Fortunately, with the ouster of that government, her situation has improved.
Other political cartoonists around the globe have not been so lucky. Last fall we heard reports that Syrian cartoonist Akram Raslan had been executed by the Assad regime, of whom he had been critical, although there is still some uncertainty about his status.
I may get upset by American politics on a daily basis, but I am grateful for the freedom of expression that I enjoy here. To help our colleagues abroad who don't have the same protections, there is a non-profit based here in the DC area called Cartoonists Rights Network International. The director, Bro Russell, is here tonight, and I encourage you to seek him out and learn more about what that great organization is doing.
Speaking of champions of good causes, I'd like to say a few words about Herblock, who I unfortunately never met. I was reading him regularly toward the end of his career, when I lived in Virginia and subscribed to the Post. That was a period of political turmoil " the Bush vs. Gore presidential race, the Florida recount, and the Supreme Court decision giving Bush the presidency. It was a formative period for me, pushing my work in a more political direction. I found myself taking comfort in Herblock's cartoons, and cheering him on through those dark days. And when he disappeared from the op-ed page in August of 2001, to me it felt like the last straw, like the world was coming to an end.
As I've noted before, what I admired most about Herblock was that he drew from a clear moral perspective. He didn't just illustrate the news or go for innocuous, crowd-pleasing Jay Leno-style gags. He didn't take the uncontroversial path of false equivalence. You knew where he stood. He seemed to intuitively grasp that meeting insanity halfway meant you were halfway to insanity. And by following his moral compass, how often he was on the right side of history!
To me, that's what political cartooning is all about. That's why I think of it as the Noble Art. Although I am mystified as to why there seems to be something of a media blackout around the people behind the cartoons. You see obscure academics and authors plugging their books on TV all the time. Op-ed columnists get invited to be talking heads on cable news. You know it's bad when you're considered beneath the standards of cable.
For some reason, if you deal in words, you're a serious thinker, but if you deal in words AND pictures, you're something between a court jester and a street busker. I remember once seeing an altweekly that put its comics, including at least one political cartoon, under the section heading "Fluff."
So I am grateful to Herblock's legacy as well as the Library of Congress for reaffirming that we aren't fluff, for recognizing political cartooning as an art form worthy of this magnificent space, and for giving the medium the respect that it deserves. Thank you.
SOREN1_140429_557.JPG: Bob Woodward @ Library of Congress for Jen Sorensen's Herblock Prize event
SOREN2_140429_018.JPG: The Genius of Herblock: Understanding the Real Nixon
SOREN2_140429_024.JPG: "Goodness, Could There Be Anyone Like That?"
Connally: Beware of "aspirants for high office... who were once close to power and long to return."
SOREN2_140429_027.JPG: Phone Call President Nixon and Treasury Secretary John Connally
April 29, 1971
Nixon: And the other thing that made me think you'd really come across it that son-of-a-bitch Herblock finally took notice of you. [Laughter]
Connally: It didn't take him long, either, did he?
Nixon: Didn't you enjoy it, though?
Connally: Oh yea, he got my --
Nixon: Let me tell you this: If Nellie [Connally] worries, tell her that Herblock took me on 23 years ago in the Hiss case, and he's been against me ever since. And when he took you on, I said, "By God, Connally's my man." [Laughter]
SOREN2_140429_043.JPG: "The Secret Negotiations Abroad Are Nothing Compared To the Ones At Home"
SOREN2_140429_050.JPG: The Dark At The Top of the Stairs
SOREN2_140429_057.JPG: "There's No Need For An Independent Investigation -- We Have Everything Well in Hand."
SOREN2_140429_063.JPG: "There You Are, Boy -- Nice Bone --"
SOREN2_140429_067.JPG: All Quiet Along The Potomac
SOREN2_140429_073.JPG: "The Newspaper Stories Are Despicable -- And We Refuse To Answer Any Questions"
SOREN2_140429_078.JPG: Polls Show Landslide
SOREN2_140429_081.JPG: Corruption Issue
SOREN2_140429_084.JPG: "We Don't Know Where We Got The Money And We Don't Know What President We Were Re-Electing"
SOREN2_140429_090.JPG: "We've Done Everything Possible To Get To The Bottom Of This. We Just Don't Want Anyone To Get to the Top of It"
SOREN2_140429_095.JPG: "Oops -- Sorry -- I wouldn't intrude on highly placed gentlemen"
SOREN2_140429_098.JPG: Oval Office Conversation
President Nixon and John Dean
March 21, 1973
Nixon: How much money do you need?
Dean: I would say these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years.
Nixon: We could get that. If you -- on the money, if you need the money, I mean, you could get the money fairly easily.
Dean: Well, I think that we're --
Nixon: What I meant is, you could get a million dollars. And you could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten.
Dean: Mm-hmm.
Nixon: I mean, it's not easy, but it could be done.
SOREN2_140429_107.JPG: "How can anything touch us after our landslide?"
SOREN2_140429_116.JPG: Hail to the Chief
SOREN2_140429_119.JPG: "It may not be touching you, boss, but it's getting to me"
SOREN2_140429_126.JPG: "... I can report today that there have been major developments..."
SOREN2_140429_236.JPG: "Now we'll put in a new lawman that we can cooperate with"
SOREN2_140429_246.JPG: Forward!
SOREN2_140429_251.JPG: End of another reel
SOREN2_140429_254.JPG: Oval Office Conversation
President Nixon and Bob Haldeman
April 9, 1973
Nixon: Oh, what the hell, even, frankly, I don't want to have in the record discussions we've had in this room on Watergate. You know, we've discussed a lot of that stuff.
SOREN2_140429_262.JPG: 5 years and 18-1/2 minutes is enough
SOREN2_140429_266.JPG: White House home-made rules to cover impeachment proceedings
SOREN2_140429_272.JPG: "I will continue to cooperate completely in providing any unshredded, unlost and unerased evidence I am absolutely forced to give up"
SOREN2_140429_291.JPG: "Listen, are you going to be loyal to me or to that (expletive deleted) Constitution?"
SOREN2_140429_297.JPG: "Boss, it's not flying"
SOREN2_140429_305.JPG: "We deplore the vicious reports about the presidential remarks we refuse to disclose"
SOREN2_140429_310.JPG: Oval Office Conversation
President Nixon and Bob Haldeman
July 3, 1971
Nixon: The government is full of Jews.
Haldeman: I sure do.
Nixon: Second, most Jews are disloyal. You know what I mean? You have a -- you have a [Leonard] Garment and a [Henry] Kissinger, and frankly, a [William] Safire, and by God, they're exceptions. But, Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. They turn on you.
SOREN2_140429_321.JPG: I am -- not -- a crook
SOREN2_140429_338.JPG: Equal justice under law 8
Nixon claim of absolute privilege 0
SOREN2_140429_349.JPG: "Who would think of doing such a thing?"
SOREN2_140429_356.JPG: "Strange -- they all seem to have some connection with this place"
SOREN2_140429_361.JPG: Oval Office Conversation
President Nixon and Bob Haldeman
June 23, 1972
Nixon: Good. Good deal. Play it tough. That's the way they play it, and that's the way we're going to play it, okay?
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Wikipedia Description: Herblock Prize
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning is an annual $15,000 after-tax cash prize, and a sterling silver Tiffany trophy. Designed "to encourage editorial cartooning as an essential tool for preserving the rights of the American people through freedom of speech and the right of expression," it is named for the editorial cartoonist Herblock and sponsored by the The Herb Block Foundation.
The rotating three-judge panel that determines the award-winner is typically composed of the previous year's winner, another editorial cartoonist, and a scholar of editorial cartooning. The award is typically presented some time between March and May of each year, at the Library of Congress.
Each award presentation is accompanied by a guest lecturer who discusses contemporary social issues "in the spirit of Herblock." Previous Herblock Prize guest lecturers include Ben Bradlee, President Barack Obama, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Ted Koppel, George Stevens, Jr., Jim Lehrer, Garry Trudeau, Gwen Ifill, and Bob Woodward.
Finalists for the award have been named since 2011; they receive a $5,000 after-tax prize.
History
When Herb Block died in October 2001, he left $50 million with instructions to create a foundation to support charitable and educational programs that help promote and sustain the causes he championed during his 72 years of cartooning. The Herb Block Foundation is committed to defending the basic freedoms guaranteed all Americans, combating all forms of discrimination and prejudice, and improving the conditions of the poor and underprivileged through the creation or support of charitable and educational programs with the same goals. The Foundation is also committed to improving educational opportunities to deserving students through post-secondary education scholarships and to promoting editorial cartooning through continuing research. The Herb Block Foundation awarded its first gra ...More...
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2019_DC_DaviesR_190502: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2019): Matt Davies -- Reception (124 photos from 2019)
2019_DC_DaviesP_190502: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2019): Matt Davies -- Presentation (81 photos from 2019)
2018_DC_SuttonR_180509: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2018) -- Ward Sutton -- Reception (120 photos from 2018)
2018_DC_SuttonP_180509: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2018) -- Ward Sutton -- Presentation (102 photos from 2018)
2017_DC_BollingR_170329: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2017): Ruben Bolling -- Reception (107 photos from 2017)
2017_DC_BollingP_170329: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2017): Ruben Bolling -- Presentation (72 photos from 2017)
2016_DC_FioreR_160524: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2016): Mark Fiore -- Reception (and anything non-program) (94 photos from 2016)
2016_DC_FioreP_160524: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2016): Mark Fiore -- Presentation (73 photos from 2016)
2015_DC_Kal_R_150507: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2015): Kevin Kallaugher -- Reception (142 photos from 2015)
2015_DC_Kal_P_150507: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2015): Kevin Kallaugher -- Presentation (62 photos from 2015)
2015_DC_Kal_Exhibit_150507: Library of Congress -- Ceremony: Herblock Prize (2015): Kevin Kallaugher -- Exhibit (15 photos from 2015)
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Sorensen, Jen appears on:
2015_DC_McGowan_151118 Natl Archives -- Panel -- 11th Annual McGowan Forum on Communications ("Drawn from the Headlines") w/David Sipress, Tom Toles, Jen Sorensen, Keith Knight, and Signe Wilkinson
2019_MD_Presidents_190529 AFI and Washington Monthly -- Fourth Estate Film Series (2019) -- "All the President's Men" (w/Bob Woodward and Paul Glastris)
2016_DC_WP_Transformers0_160518 Washington Post -- Coffee @ WaPo -- Transformers (0): Miscellaneous (w/Bob Woodward, Martine Rothblatt, Michael Cavna, and Neely Tucker)
2016_MD_Books_AliveP05_160430 Washington Writers Conference (2016) -- Saturday -- Panel: Lunch w/Lifetime Achievement Award to Kitty Kelley, and Keynote speaker: Bob Woodward
2014_DC_Kalb_141020 NPC -- Kalb Report: "Writing History" (w/Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein)
2014 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Winchester, VA, Nashville, TN, and Atlanta, GA),
Michigan to visit mom in the hospice before she died and then a return trip after she died, and
my 9th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City, Sacramento, Oakland, and Los Angeles).
Ego strokes: Paul Dickson used one of my photos as the author photo in his book "Aphorisms: Words Wrought by Writers".
Number of photos taken this year: just over 470,000.