Awards 
Watch the playback of the 2021 Community Media Awards
"Detachment has its place, but there are things that can only be learned about the world and can only be reported accurately, if you care."
Thanks to all those who joined us at the 26th Community Media Awards! To those of you who weren't able to watch live: Sit back, enjoy an amazing Chicago-centric DJ set by Sadie Woods (pictured above), and hear from 2021 Ripple Effect Award Winner Jamie Kalven (quoted above), Uplifting Voices Award Winner Tonika Lewis Johnson, and this year's class of Studs Terkel Award winners. Make sure to watch through to the end for a very special rendition of "This Land Is Your Land / Esta Tierra Es Tuya" arranged and performed by Sones' De Mexico's Juan Dies.
The 2021 Award Winners
Thanks to our sponsors:
Many thanks to the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation for supporting this event, and to sponsors WBEZ, Elevate, and our media partner, Chicago Public Square. Thanks also to our longtime supporters Michael Burke and Robert Charles, and to Paul O’Connor for sponsoring in remembrance of Sol Polk and Len O’Connor.
Louis B. “Studs” Terkel was not just a name to us, he was a mentor and a guiding star, from the founding of the organization in 1989, until he died in 2008.
Presented annually, the Studs Terkel Awards honor journalists whose work follows the values of Studs' journalism. As Studs said in 2007, the award is meant for journalists who go the extra mile in reporting news “from the people who made Chicago, news that’s bottom up rather than up, down. … That’s what this is all about.”
These reporters, editors, producers, videographers and photographers take risks in covering social issues by offering new or unusual perspectives, from housing to race to violence to health to education and beyond.
The awards are given for a body of work rather than a single article or series, and go to journalists at any stage of their career.
