President Obama on Thursday lauded 24 actors, artists, historians, musicians, poets and teachers for their ability to help people “identify with our collective experience as Americans.”
Obama honored 12 Medal of Arts and 12 National Humanities Medal recipients for 2015 during a ceremony at the White House Thursday. But one of them, actor Morgan Freeman, was missing.
Obama quipped that Freeman “undoubtedly is off playing a black president again. He never lets me have my moment.”
The remaining 11 Medal of Arts recipients for 2015 are: actor Mel Brooks, author Sandra Cisneros, New York City’s Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, composer Philip Glass, Motown producer and songwriter Berry Gordy, musician Santiago Jiménez, Jr., theater producer Moises Kaufman, dancer Ralph Lemon, Broadway performer Audra McDonald, playwright Luis Valdez and artist Jack Whitten.
The 2015 National Humanities Medal honorees were: author Rudolfo Anaya, Washington, D.C. chef José Andrés, historian Ron Chernow, lyricist Louise Glück, radio host Terry Gross, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, author James McBride, essayist Louis Menand, scholar Elaine Pagels, San Quentin Prison’s university project, Dr. Abraham Verghese and author Isabel Wilkerson.
