Names and faces
■ New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to soon receive an International Emmy award for his once-daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic that was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of New Yorkers this spring. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, whose members include media and entertainment figures from over 60 countries and 500 companies, announced Friday that it plans to present the award to the Democratic governor in a livestreamed show Monday. Bruce Paisner, the academy’s chief executive, said Cuomo is being honored with the Founders Award for using his briefings to inform and calm the public. Previous recipients include former Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, and director Steven Spielberg. “The governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” Paisner said. “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back.” The pandemic peaked in New York early-to-mid April, when over 18,000 people were hospitalized at once and hospitals and nursing homes reported as many as 800 deaths in one day. The number of daily infections, hospitalizations and deaths plummeted as Cuomo slowly reopened the state’s economy this summer, when about 1% of tests were coming up positive. New York is now seeing far fewer deaths and hospitalizations than this spring. Still, the state’s daily average of covid-19 cases over the past seven days has more than doubled in two weeks as cases surge nationwide.
■ U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo will serve a third, one-year term and has started an online project that celebrates American Indian poets around the country. Her reappointment was announced Thursday by the Library of Congress, and her new term begins in September. “This has been a challenging year for the country, for our earth. Poetry has provided doorways for joy, grief and understanding in the midst of turmoil and pandemic,” Harjo, the first American Indian to be named poet laureate, said in a statement. “I welcome the opportunity of a third term to activate my project and visit communities to share Native poetry. The story of America begins with Native presence, thoughts and words. Poetry is made of word threads that weave and connect us.” Previous laureates include Tracy K. Smith, Natasha Tretheway and Robert Pinsky, the only other laureate in recent years to serve three terms. Harjo’s project is called Living Nations, Living Words. It features a digital map of 47 contemporary writers, including Harjo, Louise Erdrich and Natalie Diaz.