Mindy Kaling and Bruce Springsteen set to be honoured with humanities medals by Joe Biden
The medal represents the US’s highest award for advancing the arts
Bruce Springsteen and Mindy Kaling will be among those honoured at the 2021 National Humanities Medals and the National Medal of Arts ceremony on Tuesday (21 March).
Similar to an MBE, the National Medal of Arts is the nation’s highest award for advancing the arts in America.
Springsteen and Kaling are among a dozen individuals and groups including Gladys Knight and Julia Louis-Dreyfus that Biden has chosen to honour with arts medals during the White House ceremony. First lady Jill Biden will also participate.
The medal, inaugurated in 1997, “honours individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects,” according to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The ceremony was among the many White House events postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the same event, Biden will award 2021 National Humanities Medals to a group including authors Amy Tan, Colson Whitehead and Ann Patchett. The medal honours individuals or groups for work that deepens understanding of the humanities.
Both medals are the first of their kind to be awarded by Biden. The president surprised Sir Elton John with a National Humanities Medal during a White House musical event last September.
Find a full list of recipients of the 2021 National Medal of Arts below:
Judith Francisca Baca, artist.
Fred Eychaner, businessman and philanthropist.
Jose Feliciano, singer.
Mindy Kaling, actress.
Gladys Knight, singer.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actor.
Antonio Martorell-Cardona, painter.
Joan Shigekawa, film producer.
Bruce Springsteen, singer.
Vera Wang, fashion designer.
The Billie Holiday Theatre.
The International Association of Blacks in Dance.
And the recipients of the 2021 National Humanities Medal:
Richard Blanco, poet and author.
Johnnetta Betsch Cole, anthropologist.
Walter Isaacson, writer.
Earl Lewis, social historian.
Henrietta Mann, academic.
Ann Patchett, author.
Bryan Stevenson, advocate for the poor.
Amy Tan, author.
Tara Westover, author.
Colson Whitehead, author.
Native America Calling.
Additional reporting from The Associated Press