Rita Dove accepts the medal from President Obama
"The glow in their faces. The cameras, the smiles, the applause – all for the arts and humanities!"
That's one of the thoughts University of Virginia English professor and poet Rita Dove said ran through her mind as she sat in the White House East Room on Monday, waiting to receive the 2011 National Medal of Arts.
President Obama awarded the medal to Dove and seven other artists at a Feb. 13 ceremony. He offered a handshake or kiss on the cheek to each recipient, and he jokingly teased Dove about needing another award, she said.
She told herself she'd commit every moment to memory, but she hasn't processed it fully, she said. "It's all a dazzle in my brain."
Rita Dove
The other arts awardees included actor Al Pacino, philanthropist Emily Rauh Pulitzer and country musician Mel Tillis. At the same ceremony, the National Humanities Medal also was awarded to nine individuals and organizations, including poet John Ashbery, scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah and the National History Day program.
Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English in the College of Arts & Sciences, had received the humanities award in 1996 and is the youngest poet to receive the arts medal.
Comments
What an honor! I love Rita Dove and her poetry.
Wow…..... What a prestigious award is this! I am really impressed to know about her. The Poet and Professor Rita Dove is extremely looking full confident in existing picture. She really rocks the literature world.
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