New York Times Journalist Charles M. Blow to Speak at U.Va. Oct. 25

Charles M. Blow, the New York Times’ visual op-ed columnist whose articles appear on Saturdays, will talk about “Demographics and Destiny: How America’s Rapidly Changing Demographics are Changing our Politics” on Oct. 25 at 4 p.m. in the Garrett Hall Great Room at the University of Virginia.

A reception will follow in the solarium of Pavilion VII. His visit is co-sponsored by the Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies and American Studies program in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Frank Batten School for Leadership and Public Policy.

Blow joined the Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and quickly became the newspaper’s graphics director, a position he held for nine years. He left in 2006 to become the art director of National Geographic magazine and returned to the Times two years later.

He began writing opinion pieces in 2008 using graphs and charts. Blow has become a familiar commentator on TV. His topics range from presidential elections – and recently a defense of public television – to inequality and social justice issues.

Before joining the Times, Blow was a graphic artist at the Detroit News.

In his graphics role, Blow led the Times to a best-of-show award from the Society of News Design for the Times’ information graphics coverage of 9/11, the first time the award had been given for graphics coverage. He also led the paper to its first two best-in-show awards from the Malofiej International Infographics Summit for work that included coverage of the Iraq War.