Recognized for excellence for its articles, photography and editorial cartoons, The Villager won four awards in the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for 2016. The awards were handed out last weekend at NYPA’s annual spring convention in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Lincoln Anderson, The Villager’s editor in chief, won second place in the Best News or Feature Series category for his ongoing series of articles on David Lloyd Wilkie a.k.a. legendary urban gardener Adam Purple.
“An emotionally difficult story to get through but I couldn’t stop until the end. Wow,” the judge wrote in his or her comments.
In an initial article at the end of 2015, shortly after Purple’s death at age 84, Anderson broke the story of Purple’s sexual abuse of his two young daughters and two young stepdaughters when they all lived together in Australia in the 1960s. The article was based on the revelations of Purple’s oldest daughter, Jenean, and a detailed letter from his youngest daughter, Lenore.
Purple was convicted of sexually attacking the oldest stepdaughter and served up to two years in prison Down Under before being deported to California. He soon made his way to the Lower East Side, where he took on his Adam Purple tie-dye-wearing persona, had two wives in succession named Eve and created the Garden of Eden, on Eldridge between Stanton and Rivington Sts.
Anderson’s three articles in the 2016 contest year included “All Purple’s daughters,” in which more of the women came forward to tell their stories in full — his youngest daughter related during a series of telephone interviews how she briefly reunited with her father and lived with him on Forsyth St., sleeping in the same bed with him — after he made her get an I.U.D.; “Purple: Paragon or pariah?” a community-reaction piece; and “Prisoner Purple: ‘Talkative’ con made the cut for tree camp,” an article based on prison records from Purple’s time behind bars in Australia — which noted that he was ultimately transferred to an “afforestation camp” where he planted trees, seemingly fitting for the future “Godfather of Community Gardens.”
In addition, several of The Villager’s usual contributors who add to the paper’s visual excellence raked in awards, as usual.
On the fifth anniversary of Japan’s monster earthquake and tsunami, firefighters from local Fukushima fire departments looked for the remains of the disaster’s victims in Ukedo in Namie, one of the evacuation zones due to radiation from the critically damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. Photo by Q. Sakamaki
Q. Sakamaki won second place for Picture Story for his photos of Fukushima, Japan, five years after the devastating nuclear disaster there.
“This entry had strong storytelling images,” the judge for this category wrote, “and had a diversity of images that truly added to the overall package.”
Milo Hess won third place for Art Photo for his striking image of the 9/11 “Tribute in Light,” shot while standing inside one of the rings of beams. Each “beam” is actually made up of multiple lights, but appears as one beam when viewed from a distance, symbolizing the fallen Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
“Unique framing and creative positioning of photographer to capture an unusual view of this tribute,” the judge in this category commented. “Does what a photographer does best: capturing a different perspective of a subject to tell a story.”
Ira Blutreich won honorable mention for Editorial Cartoon for his two-panel drawing of how the Democrats viewed Donald Trump and the Republicans viewed Hillary Clinton — each panel basically looked like the same monster, save for some small details, such as pearls and lipstick on Clinton and orange hair and a tie on Trump.
The contest is mainly for community weekly newspapers in New York State. One hundred eighty-four papers submitted nearly 3,000 entries in 67 categories. Members of the North Carolina Press Association judged the entries this past January.
“The contest provides an opportunity to display the powerful, impactful work being done by community newspapers,” said Michelle Rea, NYPA’s executive director.
