Five years ago, we at PGN instituted the first annual Pink Penny awards.
Though similar in concept to the defunct Lambda Awards PGN used to hand out, the Pink Pennies are different. While the Lambdas were based on community input, the Pink Pennies are driven by PGN staff.
For six weeks, we’ve been hemming, hawing, arguing, procrastinating and cramming over it. We flesh out categories, winners and descriptions. We argue about semantics and connotations. We pour over previous years’ issues. We visit the contenders. We talk about why we like this better than that. We talk about photos and the cover, what would be interesting, what would be new, what we can actually accomplish.
Pink Penny is by no means a representation of the best of Philadelphia. Frankly, PGN’s staff is too trim to tackle that one. We try to give a slice of the best of gay Philadelphia, but we know that we only touch, encounter, experience and know so much.
So, that’s why we do the Pink Pennies. It’s our two cents about what we love right now in Philly. Some years, there are ties. Sometimes, previous winners win again. (Hello, Naked Chocolate.) Sometimes, as editor, I put my foot down. Other times I relent. Sometimes we forget to include people, places, things we absolutely adore.
Consider it a labor of love. Or our love letter to Philadelphia for the year. Though, it’s a good thing we only have to do it once a year: It’s a bit too stressful to tackle more often.
But lord knows we love some stress. Which is why, we think, we are planning to do a readers’ choice issue this year. We’ve been talking about it since the inception of Pink Penny, but have yet to figure out an easy way to make it work — and the wherewithal to commit precious time and energy to actually do it.
But it’s on the calendar now. We’ve slated it for November. So, dear readers, you will need to start thinking about what you love about Philly.
Which also means you — like us for Pink Penny — will need to leave your TV/computer/internet/job/whatever it is that keeps you inside, and go venture out into the great city we live in.
We haven’t decided categories yet (who are we kidding?), but we have started to think about thinking about it. Or at least thinking about setting a date to start thinking about it. That works, right?