This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
Brunch with Paul
The Notebook will hold a special event to honor its co-founder and editor/publisher Paul Socolar on Nov. 15. The event, “Brunch with Paul” will recognize Socolar for his 21 years of service to the nonprofit and also serve as a fundraiser to help build the Notebook’s reporting capacity.
All proceeds from the event will go to a new “Paul Socolar Investigative Reporting Fund” to support in-depth reporting projects by the Notebook.
Through the fund, the Notebook hopes to raise $100,000 to ensure that resources are available to carry on Socolar’s commitment to strong investigative reporting on equity issues and to independent, local journalism.
The brunch will be held from noon to 2 p.m. at WHYY, 150 N. Sixth St., in Center City. Admission is $150, or you can donate $500 to become an event host. You can purchase tickets here.
If you would like to make a donation to help with the launch of the fund, email Lauren Wiley, development director, or call 215-839-0082, ext. 106. You can become a fund “Founder” with giving levels starting at $1,000. For more information, visit the Notebook.
Search for new publisher
Socolar announced in February that he would be stepping down around the end of 2015 to pursue other opportunities. A search committee and a transition committee have been formed to recruit and hire a new publisher and oversee the organizational changes. A new leader is expected to be in place by early winter.
Socolar has said that the Notebook’s recent accomplishments make this “an opportune time for me to transition out of the Notebook.” After years of operating as a project of Resources for Human Development, a nonprofit human service organization, the Notebook separated and incorporated independently in 2013 and secured its own tax-exempt status in 2014.
For information about the search and the job announcement, see the jobs page of the Notebook website.
Awards honor ‘Glen’s Village’
Since the May release of Glen’s Village, a 30-minute Notebook documentary by journalists Dorian Geiger and Paul Jablow that addresses the effects of trauma on children in Philadelphia schools, the film has garnered attention and acclaim. Now it has received multiple awards.
Glen’s Village won the Best Short Documentary Award at AMFM Fest: Flagstaff in Arizona on Aug. 30. This was the documentary’s first festival circuit showing. It was also named best documentary at the Mount Vernon, N.Y., Film Festival in September and received the audience award for best medium-length film and jury award for best documentary at #TOFF: The Online Film Festival.
The film focuses on Glen Casey, a 20-year-old West Philadelphia native who found the supports he needed both in and out of school to rise from a life surrounded by drugs and violence and become a University of Pennsylvania student.
The Notebook recently ended an Indiegogo campaign to raise money to distribute Glen’s Village widely as a learning tool in city schools to educate parents, students, and teachers on childhood trauma. You can help us raise the balance of our $6,000 goal by making a donation. Contact Lauren Wiley to contribute or inquire about a screening.
Glen’s Village has been accepted into 11 film festivals, three of which are online.
Two places to catch a screening of Glen’s Village are the Atlantic City CineFest in Atlantic City at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 and the First Glance Festival at the Franklin Institute at noon on Oct. 25.