BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It was a big night for a pair of Buffalo natives at the 2024 Sports Emmy Awards in New York City on Tuesday.
Spoken word artist, activist, and Buffalo's former poet laureate Jillian Hanesworth and Director Augustus Clarke won The Dick Schaap Outstanding Writing Award for their work on the NFL 360 short feature "Still Here."
"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it," Hanesworth told 7 News Anchor Jeff Russo. "To have that moment is just really surreal."
"It feels amazing, amazing," said Clarke, who also co-produced "Still Here" with Trent Cooper.
Clarke joined Hanesworth onstage to accept the Sports Emmy at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City on Tuesday night.
The award was one of six Sports Emmy Awards the National Football League won on Tuesday.
The NFL describes "Still Here" as "a passionate statement about a heartbroken community leaning on its beloved football team to help heal from a year of off-field tragedies."
"To be able to highlight people from our community, and be able to show our strength and ability to pull together, that was the ultimate goal," said Hanesworth.
"Still Here" highlights Buffalo's heartbreak and resilience through the racist mass shooting on May 14th, 2022, the deadly Christmas blizzard that took 47 lives, and the line-of-duty death of Buffalo Firefighter Jason Arno.
"This is something that I wanted to do for the city for a long time," said Clarke. "People are just grieving and we knew we needed to highlight it and bring it to the national level."
"Still Here" uses the Buffalo Bills as a common thread that unites our entire region.
"Our football team, the Buffalo Bills, brings all walks of life together, it doesn't matter your skin color. You can be a blue alien. When it's game time, it's love, nothing but love," said Clarke.
"I think that really shows people that even thought we have a lot of things that can divide us as people, we also have something that can unite us, and we allow to unite us," added Hanesworth.
