WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama honored 20 artists, scholars and
writers — from James Taylor to Quincy Jones, from Philip Roth to Joyce
Carol Oates — in a salute to the arts and humanities that embraced both
celebrity and quiet achievement.
Among those honored was Bowling Green State University graduate Arnold Rampersad.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama filled the East Room of the
White House Wednesday with an array of talent that transcended
generations and reached into the worlds of letters and music, history
and dance, criticism and film.
“One of the great joys of being president is getting a chance to pay
tribute to the artists and authors, poets and performers who have
touched our hearts and opened our minds,” Obama said, adding with a
knowing look, “or in the case of Quincy Jones and James Taylor, set the
mood.”
Multiple Oscar winner Meryl Streep and Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a
Mockingbird,” were also honored, but were unable to attend the ceremony.
The president bestowed 10 National Medal of Arts and 10 National Humanities Medals.
“I speak personally here because there are people here whose books or
poetry or works of history shaped me,” he said. Nodding conspiratorially
toward arts medalist and jazz artist Sonny Rollins seated before him,
he said: “I’ve got these thumb-worn editions of these works of art and
these old records where they were still vinyl, Sonny, before they went
digital that helped inspire me or get me through a tough day or take
risks that I might not otherwise have taken.”
Taylor, who campaigned for Obama in 2008 and had to cancel a concert
with his son Ben in Des Moines to attend Wednesday’s ceremony, offered
the president a bit of political advice “I think that the administration
has been almost too modest in their accomplishments. I’m hoping the
American public understands who we’ve got here, what we’ve got in this
president.”
In his salute, Obama noted that the honorees had contributed to both the
intellectual growth of the nation, but also had provided the nation
with diversion — a chance to laugh or escape from the pressures of the
moment.
“We also remember the art that challenged our assumptions; the
scholarship that brought us closer to the events of our history; the
poetry that we loved — or at least the poetry that we might recite to a
girlfriend to seem deep,” he said. “Of course, we still hum the great
songs by the musicians in this room — songs that in many cases have been
the soundtrack of our lives over decades.”
Rampersad received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from
BGSU in 1967 and 1968. Named a distinguished alumnus, the university
ranted him an honorary doctorate in 1995. His citation read: “The 2010
National Humanities Medal to Arnold Rampersad for his work as a
biographer and literary critic. His award-winning books have profiled
W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Jackie Robinson and Ralph Ellison, and
he has edited critical editions of the works of Richard Wright and
Langston Hughes.”
As the honorees and guests made their way out the East Room, the Marine
Band played some familiar strains — it was a medley of Taylor favorites.
Others receiving arts medals:
• Van Cliburn, the world-renown pianist who broke into the international
scene in 1958 by winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in
Moscow.
• Quincy Jones, musician, composer, record producer, and arranger of multiple musical fusions.
• Mark di Suvero, the abstract expressionist sculptor.
• Donald Hall, the poet laureate of the United States from 2006 to 2007.
• Robert Brustein, theatre critic, producer, playwright, and founder of
the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre.
• Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the longest running American dance festival, based in the Berkshires in
Massachusetts.
Others receiving medals for the humanities:
• Daniel Aaron, founding president of the Library of America.
• Bernard Bailyn, Pulitzer Prize winning historian focused on early U.S. history.
• Jacques Barzun, scholar and a leader in the field of cultural history.
• Wendell E. Berry, poet and conservationist and author of more than 40 books.
• Roberto Gonzalez Echevarrma, scholar and literary critic.
• Stanley Nider Katz, president of the American Council of Learned Societies.
• Philip Roth, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of 24 novels, including “Portnoy’s Complaint” and
“American Pastoral.”
• Gordon Wood, scholar, historian and Pulitzer Prize winner.