Springsteen, Kaling, Louis-Dreyfus among 22 honored by Biden

By Darlene Superville And Colleen Long, The Associated Press on March 21, 2023.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden welcomed a high-wattage collection of singers, authors, artists and humanitarians to the White House on Tuesday to present them with medals – and then stole the show himself with a quip about seeking reelection.

Bruce Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling and Gladys Knight were among the 22 people and organizations being honored. When author Colson Whitehead’s award was announced, Biden noted that the author of “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys” has already won back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes.

The president, who is expected to announce for reelection this spring, quickly picked up on that and joked that he was looking “for a back-to-back myself,” drawing a laugh from the audience.

It was a feel-good event in the East Room, as the honorees stepped forward to receive their awards one by one. Louis-Dreyfus, who channeled Biden’s resume when she starred in “Veep,” jokingly sagged under the weight when the president placed the medal for the arts around her neck. Springsteen, with his everyman persona, looked incongruous in a black suit. Poet and author Richard Blanco stunned in a teal tuxedo. Knight, the “empress of soul,” gave the president a giant hug when he put the medal around her neck.

Biden joked that he opens his closet to find designer Vera Wang inside – her clothes, anyway – then said, “Your dresses always look beautiful on my wife.”

The medals are Biden’s first batch of awards for the arts and humanities and were delayed by the pandemic. The president surprised Sir Elton John with a National Humanities Medal during a White House musical event last September.

Recipients of the 2021 National Medal of Arts:

– Judith Francisca Baca, artist.

– Fred Eychaner, businessman and philanthropist.

– Jose Feliciano, singer.

– Mindy Kaling, actress.

– Gladys Knight, singer.

– Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actor.

– Antonio Martorell-Cardona, painter.

– Joan Shigekawa, film producer.

– Bruce Springsteen.

– Vera Wang, fashion designer.

– The Billie Holiday Theatre.

– The International Association of Blacks in Dance.

Recipients of the 2021 National Humanities Medal:

– Richard Blanco, poet and author.

– Johnnetta Betsch Cole, anthropologist.

– Walter Isaacson, writer.

– Earl Lewis, social historian.

– Henrietta Mann, academic.

– Ann Patchett, author.

– Bryan Stevenson, advocate for the poor.

– Amy Tan, author.

– Tara Westover, author.

– Colson Whitehead, author.

– Native America Calling.

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