Oprah Winfrey and Harry Belafonte win recognition at Harvard

The queen of TV talk shows, Oprah Winfrey, musicologist Harry Belafonte and director, Steve McQueen were given awards and praised for their respective contributions to Black American Culture.

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The event took place at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Several others were also given the W.E.B. Du Bois Medals. All in all, eight medals got presented to the recipients at this honorable occasion.

The awarded medallions are the highest achievement status to be bestowed on anyone this year by Harvard University. African American Studies is the field of endeavor which these rare and exceptional individuals have benefitted and that too in no small way.

Especially, the director of 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen, did a marvelous job of bringing to light the dark past when slavery and the exploitation of man by man was a taken-for-granted fact of life.

Among some of the others besides these big three /4/be included Shonda Rimes of Grey’s Anatomy and the producer of films, Harvey Weinstein. As for Oprah Winfrey, she was the wonder woman of the moment.

She gracefully accepted another award in lieu of the late and great poet Maya Angelou who passed away earlier this year. Maya was a pal of Oprah’s. Meanwhile, Oprah took some extra time from her busy schedule to attend Syracuse University.

Many people came to see her complete the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new wing of the campus. The individuals who got to hear her speak said that she was a very famous person indeed.

Only the most boring hermit on earth could be capable of not recognizing Oprah Winfrey as a television personality and opinion maker of America. This woman is a mover and shaker and she has tons of fans and well-wishers who turned up at the event.

Oprah is a source of inspiration to so many, who look up to her as an example of a poverty-stricken and abused victim who overcame her shortcomings and rose above her environment. She is a symbol of redemption and renewal like the Lotus flower that arises from the mud and faces the sun in all its glory.

Source: Express , CNY