FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, August 13, 2024
PRESS CONTACT: Kenrick Thomas info@wabjdc.org
Washington, D.C. – The Washington Association of Black Journalists (WABJ) announced that Vann R. Newkirk II, senior editor, The Atlantic and the host of the podcasts Floodlines and Holy Week, has been selected as the 2024 WABJ Journalist of the Year. This award recognizes a Washington, D.C. area Black journalist for their outstanding accomplishments and distinguished body of work produced over the past year with extraordinary depth and significance to the black community.
Newkirk will be honored at the 3rd annual WABJ Special Honors & Scholarship Gala on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Blackburn University Center, Howard University. Early-bird tickets are now available for purchase here.
At The Atlantic, Newkirk has covered crucial topics that impact Black communities such as voting rights and environmental justice. His work focuses on how race and class have influenced the country and world’s fundamental structures in print and audio media.
Floodlines, an eight-part audio documentary released in 2020, examined the history of Hurricane Katrina, including the government’s response that made the storm’s aftermath even more brutal. In 2021, Newkirk won a Peabody Award for Floodlines. Holy Week was a riveting eight-episode narrative podcast released last year that examined the uprisings that occurred after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis and how King’s death influenced the Black Power movement.
“Using his unique skill set as a multimedia journalist, Vann has produced non-fiction and multimedia projects that share the experiences of and provide key information to marginalized populations. His professional path is a model blueprint for the next generation of reporters that wish to holistically cover topics that uniquely impact communities of color,” the WABJ Awards Review Committee said.
Newkirk’s work has deservedly earned numerous accolades, including the 2018 American Society of magazine Editor’s ASME Next Award. His reporting also inspired the documentary film Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, on which he was a consulting producer. The film won the Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Research in 2023.
“The continuation of his career will inevitably lead to further recognition of his inspired work to inform key communities across the country and around the world,” the committee said.
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Founded in 1975, the Washington Association of Black Journalists is an organization of more than 300 Black journalists, educators, public relations professionals and student journalists in the Washington, D.C., metro area. WABJ provides members with ongoing professional development opportunities and advocates for newsroom diversity, equity and inclusion. WABJ was named 2023 Professional Chapter of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. For more information, please visit www.wabjdc.org.
