The call was from the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, saying she would be awarded a 2022 National Humanities Medal. Robin Harris was in disbelief.
“I assumed she was asking me to participate in a panel to help select award recipients,” Harris said. “It never crossed my mind that I would be on the other side.”
The National Humanities Medal is awarded annually to no more than 12 people “whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history or literature or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.” Chair Shelly Lowe was telling Harris she’d nominated her to be considered by the president for doing just that.
Serving for 20 years ending in 2020 as the principal of the Fletcher Maynard Academy in The Port neighborhood of Cambridge, Harris is a well known and beloved figure. As a fierce advocate for travel off of the beaten path, she has taken students on trips to India, Senegal, Mexico, England, Morocco, China and beyond. “Exposing young minds to different cultures and perspectives is transformative,” she said in an email, reflecting on her award. “It was especially important to me to have scholars of color experience these adventures.”
Harris also serves as a professional learning facilitator at the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, a national education organization of practitioners promoting the educational success of boys and young men of color by connecting research, policy and practice.
Harris attended the ceremony at the White House on Monday alongside recipients of the National Humanities Medal and National Medals of Arts from 2022 and 2023. The medals have been awarded annually since 1989, but the Covid pandemic put a hold on those ceremonies.
She was excited to meet some of the other recipients – photographer Clyde Butcher, poet Joy Harjo and filmmakers Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg.
“The highlight, however, was the private medal ceremony in the Oval Office, where President Joe Biden placed the medal around my neck,” Harris said. With her were the Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School ring of her mother, Joan Qualls Harris, and the U.S. Air Force dog tag of her father, Philip Harris.
The ceremony was followed by remarks from Biden and first lady Jill Biden. The night closed out with what Harris described as “music, food and joy – a surreal experience.”
A fifth-generation Cantabrigian, Harris joins some illustrious previous winners from the city, including Harvard’s Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. (1999), Ruth Wisse (2007), Amartya Sen (2011) and Robert Putnam (2012) and the poet Louise Glück (2015).
A stronger
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I would very much appreciate a profile of Robin Harris and her work. I’ve been profoundly impressed with her work each time I’ve met her and seen the things she’s done.
However, she’s very modest, and very little of that work is public. It would be awesome for someone to do a comprehensive profile.
Even based on what little I’ve seen, it’s obvious that the medal is clearly well-deserved. However, why it’s so well-deserved is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The work would have so much more impact if others could learn from it.