On
September 30 of this year, a group of selected individuals and students from
Harvard gathered at the Sanders Theater on Quincy Street in Cambridge for the
W. E. B. Dubois Medal Ceremony, awarding those who have made significant
contributions to African and African American Art.
The event was sponsored by the Hutchins
Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and
under the Directorship of Henry Louis (Skip) Gates, Jr., who is also the
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard.
Those
being awarded this prestigious honor were:
David
Adjaye à
One of the leading architects of his generation, his works appear in
private houses, exhibitions, and pavilions across Europe, North America, the
Middle East, Asia, and Africa. He was
recently commissioned by the Smithsonian to design the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of African American History and Culture to open in 2016.
Maya
Angelou (posthumously) à One of the most renowned and influential
voices of our time. While working as an
editor and teacher in Africa in the early 60’s she collaborated with Malcolm X
to build the Organization of African American Unity and was asked by Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., to serve as Northern
Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She was a professor at Wake Forest University
for more than 25 years.
Harry
Belafonte (above) à He is considered “the King of Calypso,” but he is also an
Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winning artist and humanitarian. His efforts in overturning racial barriers
are legendary as he worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but also was
involved in USA for Africa, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, the release
of Nelson Mandela, Peace Corps, and UNICEF as a Goodwill Ambassador.
John
Lewis à
He has been the U. S. representative fro Georgia’s Fifth Congressional
District since 1986 and only the second African American to represent Georgia
in Congress since Reconstruction. He was
involved in the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, helped coordinate the SNCC voter registration
drives, and was beaten by an Alabama
State Trooper when he and 600 others crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
in 1965.
Steven
McQueen à Artist and filmmaker, he made film history
with is 2013 adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography, 12 Years a Slave. The film, which attracted breathless viewers,
also received 3 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, making him the first
black person to receive this honor.
Shonda
Rhimes à She
is one of the most dynamic showrunners in television today. This fall, she owns Thursday nights on ABC
with How to Get Away with Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, and Scandal. She was named Producer of the Year in 2007,
received Golden Globe Awards from 2007 to 2011, and earned consecutive NAACP
Image Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series.
Harvey
Weinstein à He founded Miramax Films in 1979 and has
since then have received 348 Oscar nominations and won 82 Academy Awards. He is considered one of Hollywood’s most
prolific producers and distributors of African American Films. This year, he (along with his brother)
received the Cinema Vanguard Award by the African American Film Critics
Association.
Oprah
Winfrey (above along with Shonda Rhimes) à She has created an unparalleled connection
with people around the world with her top-rated, award winning The Oprah
Winfrey Show. In addition to being the
first African American woman to anchor the news in Nashville, she has owned her
own film studio, her own cable network, her own magazine, and has given
acclaimed performances in several films.
She opened a Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, and in 2013
President Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom.
It
was an honor to have been invited and an even greater honor to have been seated
in the front row of the Sanders Theater watching these legends receive their
awards. Oprah received Maya’s award on
behalf of the poet and civil rights activist since she was her closest friend.
As
a white man who was told by Skip Gates a few years ago at a presentation of our
family’s heritage that “we were as white as white could be,” I felt very
uncomfortable and rather embarrassed at what all our ancestors had done to
these African Americans.
And,
I also knew that no apologies could erase our history nor could there be any guarantees
given that we might, one day, be able to put aside our differences and see each
other as brothers and sisters and fellow Americans.
All
that any of us can do in actuality is control our own actions and comments…
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