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The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation today announced that Anna Dougherty, a sophomore at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, New Jersey, has won the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest for High School Students. The winning essay describes the political courage of Dana Redd, the first black woman to serve as mayor of Camden, New Jersey. Mayor Redd faced fierce opposition when she made the difficult decision to disband her city’s police force to form a county-run police department. Dougherty writes that by standing firm in her unpopular choice, Mayor Redd took personal and professional risks to make Camden safer for its residents. Dougherty concludes that Redd’s act of political courage benefitted the city of Camden, as crime rates decreased after the new country-run department was established.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum today announced that it will reopen to the public on weekends with reduced hours beginning Saturday, July 3. In appreciation of the significant sacrifices that were made by everyone over the past year to keep people safe, admission to the Museum will be free in July and August.
The Earthshot Prize, a global environmental prize founded by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2020, has announced today the selection of Boston as host city for its second annual awards ceremony to take place in early December 2022.
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation today announced a new partnership with The Earthshot Prize. Launched in 2020 by Prince William and The Royal Foundation, The Earthshot Prize takes inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 speech at Rice University which united millions of people around the goal of reaching the Moon before the end of the decade. The Earthshot Prize aims to channel that same spirit of collective action and optimism to discover, celebrate and scale cutting-edge solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges to help repair the planet by 2030.
On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued a soaring challenge to Americans to land a man on the Moon within a decade and bring them safely back to Earth. President Kennedy’s powerful words—“We choose to go to the Moon”—inspired a generation facing grave threats and an uncertain future to dedicate their time and talent to a vision of human achievement that was then unimaginable.
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and The Earthshot Prize today announced the formation of the Host Committee for the 2022 Earthshot Prize ceremony in Boston. Honorary co-chairs Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, and President Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg, along with co-chairs Sandy and Paul Edgerley, will lead a distinguished Host Committee comprised of representatives from local environmental groups, prominent elected officials, academic institutions, and community leaders in business, philanthropy, and climate innovation. The 2022 Earthshot Prize ceremony will take place in early December at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the City of Boston.
As part of the events leading up to The Earthshot Prize – Boston 2022 ceremony, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation will host an environmental town hall with students from in and around Boston on December 1, 2022 at 3:30pm. The event will feature Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Driscoll, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Associate Administrator Rosemary Enobakhare, and The Earthshot Prize CEO Hannah Jones. Tatiana Schlossberg, President Kennedy’s granddaughter and climate journalist and author, will moderate.
This year, the JFK Presidential Library and Museum offers several virtual activities and programs for Presidents’ Day and Black History Month. The signature Presidents’ Day Festival on February 21 features presidential storytelling, activities and other performances. On Saturday, February 12, in honor of Black History Month, the Celebrate! performing arts series presents Tales from African Traditions with Valerie Tutson as she brings to life myths, folktales and historical accounts from the African continent and the African Diaspora.
Debut authors Kawai Strong Washburn and Ruchika Tomar won the 2021 and 2020 PEN/Hemingway Awards, honoring a distinguished first book of fiction, for their novels Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel (Macmillan) and A Prayer for Travelers (Riverhead). Seán Hemingway, the grandson of Ernest Hemingway, will honor Kawai Strong Washburn and Ruchika Tomar on Sunday, April 11, in a virtual celebration hosted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the world’s major repository of Ernest Hemingway’s personal papers. The winners will receive a cash prize underwritten by the Ernest Hemingway family and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation.
Harris County, Texas Judge Lina Hidalgo will receive the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award for her early and swift response to the COVID-19 pandemic to protect the nearly 5 million residents in Harris County, Texas. Hidalgo also expanded protections for the LGBTQ+ community, reformed the cash bail system, and organized new flood control policies in the wake of climate change increasing flood risks. Data for Black Lives (D4BL) founder Yeshimabeit Milner will also be honored with the New Frontier Award for her tireless efforts using data analysis to expose systematic racism faced by Black Americans in their daily lives.
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation today announced that seven people who have risked their own health and safety to protect others during the COVID-19 pandemic will receive a special Profile in Courage Award this year.
Boston, MA- The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced today that the national 2008 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest, with a first place cash prize of $5,000, is now open and accepting submissions from U.S. high school students. The deadline for entries is Saturday, January 12, 2008.
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Boston, MA- The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced today that the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest, with a first place cash prize of $5,000, is now open and accepting submissions from U.S. high school students. The deadline for entries is Saturday, January 10, 2009.
BOSTON, MA – PEN New England today announced that Michael Dahlie has won the 2009 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction for A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living (W.W. Norton). Patrick Hemingway, the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway, will present the prestigious literary award to Dahlie on Sunday, March 29, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes will serve as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
Boston MA – Sheila Bair, chair of the FDIC, and Brooksley Born, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have been named this year’s recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award,™ in recognition of the political courage each demonstrated in sounding early warnings about conditions that contributed to the current global financial crisis.
BOSTON, MA – PEN New England today announced that Brigid Pasulka has won the 2010 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction for A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Boston MA – The four members of California’s legislative leadership who in 2009 led a bi-partisan effort in a bid to close the state’s devastating budget deficit have been named this year’s recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award™.
BOSTON, MA – PEN New England today announced that Brando Skyhorse has won the 2011 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction for The Madonnas of Echo Park (Free Press). Patrick Hemingway, the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway, will present the prestigious literary award to Mr. Skyhorse on Sunday, March 27, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson will serve as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
Boston, MA—The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation today announced that Kevin Kay, a junior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland has won the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest for High School Students™. Kay will be honored by Caroline Kennedy during the May 23, 2011 Profile in Courage Award ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston for his prize-winning essay on Florida State Representative John Orr, who in 1956 cast the sole dissenting vote against measures to perpetuate school segregation in his state. Kay will receive a $10,000 award for his first-place essay.
Boston MA – Elizabeth Redenbaugh, a New Hanover County, North Carolina School Board member who stood up against what she perceived as racial segregation in school redistricting plans, and Wael Ghonim and the people of Egypt, whose courageous demand for democratic reform inspired similar movements across the Middle East, were presented the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award™ today by Caroline Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, two of Boston’s preeminent cultural institutions, have partnered to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 13 days in October 1962 that brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war.
The National Archives and Records Administration and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library are releasing an additional seven boxes of material (more than 2,700 pages) from the Robert F. Kennedy Papers, housed at the Kennedy Library in Boston, including documents relating primarily to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 13 days that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, is being marked with several new, interactive and online activities and programs aimed at reaching a younger audience, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library announced today.