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Harper Lee

We wish we had known about this last week. The Library Foundation of Los Angeles honored Harper Lee with the Literary Award at their awards dinner last Thursday and she actually showed up! The famously reclusive author was compelled by Gregory Peck's widow to attend the ceremony which also celebrated the tenth anniversary of The Gregory Peck Reading Series.
The cost to attend the 10th annual awards ceremony, held at the City National Plaza and used as a fund raising event for the LA Public Library system, was only a mere $7500 per table. The opportunity to mingle with the 79 year old Lee, whose To Kill A Mockingbird sits at the front of the class in the discussion of The Great American Novel, might have just been worth it.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
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