Bruce Springsteen, Mindy Kaling receive honorary medals from President Biden
Bruce Springsteen and Mindy Kaling with Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden honoured the recipients of the 2021 National Humanities Medal and National Medal of Arts. On Tuesday, the White House hosted the awards ceremony which was also live-streamed. The delayed awards were given to recipients including Mindy Kaling, Gladys Knight, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bruce Springsteen and fashion designer Vera Wang.
The honorees received their awards about two years late due to a backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ceremony was spruced with Biden's humour and was also attended by First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as well. President Biden opened with a speech filled with quips for the honorees.
The president greeted Louis-Dreyfus as his "friend," and asked the Veepstar, in which she plays a politician in the White House, whether she "liked being president or VP better" on the show.
Biden told Knight she's "one of the best things to ever happen to music" and told Springsteen, "Some people are just born to run, man," a reference to the singer's 1975 hit.
Each year, the United States government honour those advancing the country's arts with National Medal of Arts.The recipients usually include actors, comedians and singers.
Other recipients of 2021 included artist-activist Judith Francisca Baca, philanthropist Fred Eychaner, Puerto Rican musician José Feliciano, Puerto Rican painter Antonio Martorell-Cardona and film producer Joan Shigekawa.
The Billie Holiday Theatre and The International Association of Blacks in Dance also received medals.
The National Humanities Medal honours those who have improved Americans' understanding and engagement with history, literature, philosophy and more humanities subjects.
The 2021 recipients are poet Richard Blanco, anthropologist Johnnetta Betsch Cole, author Walter Isaacson, social historian Earl Lewis, Native American studies academic Henrietta Mann, novelist Ann Patchett, activist Bryan Stevenson, novelist Amy Tan, memoirist Tara Westover and novelist Colson Whitehead, as well as the organisation Native America Calling.
