Today the president will award national medals in the arts and humanities to 24 recipients including the lesbian former US poet laureate Kay Ryan and the gay sell-out Tony Kushner. Also, Anna Deavere Smith, who at 62 still says, "Well, I don't talk about my personal life... Look, there's a lot of identity on parade. I don't think we need any more of it from me." In 1997 lesbian trailblazer Adrienne Rich refused her medal, citing "the cynical politics" of the Clinton administration.
National Medal of Arts
- Herb Alpert, Malibu, CA
- Lin Arison, Bal Harbour, FL
- Joan Myers Brown, Philadelphia, PA
- Renée Fleming, New York, NY
- Ernest Gaines, Oscar, LA
- Ellsworth Kelly, Spencertown, NY
- Tony Kushner, New York, NY
- George Lucas, San Anslemo, CA
- Elaine May, New York, NY
- Laurie Olin, Philadelphia, PA
- Allen Toussaint, New Orleans, LA
- Washington Performing Arts Society, Washington, DC
National Humanities Medal
- Edward L. Ayers, Henrico, VA
- William G. Bowen, Princeton, NJ
- Jill Ker Conway, Boston, MA
- Natalie Zemon Davis, Toronto, CANADA
- Frank Deford, New York, NY
- Joan Didion
, New York, NY
- Robert Putnam¸ Cambridge, MA
- Marilynne Robinson
¸ Iowa City, IA
- Kay Ryan
, Fairfax, CA
- Robert B. Silvers, New York, NY
- Anna Deavere Smith¸ New York, NY
- Camilo José Vergara, New York, NY
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