President Biden handed out the prestigious National Medals of Arts and National Humanities honors to 39 recipients at the White House on Monday (Oct. 21), including hip-hip legends Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott.
“I am HUMBLY GRATEFUL! Crying Tears of JOY!,” wrote Elliott on X after the ceremony in which she was given the highest honor bestowed on artists by the U.S. government. “Thinking of the days I wasn’t so strong but through FAITH & PRAYER I kept going..I’m SO THANKFUL @POTUS & CONGRATULATIONS to the other amazing ppl who was blessed with this honor.”
Elliott also shouted out Latifah, saying, “And a BIG CONGRATS to my sis @IAMQUEENLATIFAH who deserve all the bouquets she also was honored today! Thank you for kicking down doors QUEEN for me & those after you.”
“Above all, you are the masters of your craft that have made us a better America with all of you have done,” Biden said at the ceremony according to the Associated Press. Among the other National Medals of Arts recipients were directors Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee and Ken Burns, as well playwright/screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and historian Jon Meacham, who received National Humanities Medals.
See the full list of honorees here.
Beloved singer Selena Quintanilla was awarded a posthumous humanities honor, along with late chef/author Anthony Bourdain. During his remarks, Biden also mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris with just two weeks left in the presidential election. “I know the power of the women in this room to get things done,” he said, adding that the day’s female winners were “proving a woman can do anything a man can do, and then some, that includes being president of the United States of America.”
After getting a standing ovation for the former, Biden also told the winners that their special moment came at a “very consequential time in the arts and humanities in America [because] extreme forces are banning books, trying to erase history, spreading misinformation”; the event celebrated both the 2022 and 2023 National Medal of Arts recipients.
Others who received the arts medals — managed by the National Endowment for the Arts — were actors Idina Menzel and Eva Longoria, as well as musician Leonardo “Flaco” Jimenez and ukulele master Herbert I. Ohta, as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The arts medals are awarded “to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States.”
Last year’s event for the 2021 Medal of Arts recipients included honors for Bruce Springsteen, Gladys Knight, José Feliciano, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling and more.
Check out Elliott and the White House’s posts below.