{"id":334996,"date":"2010-02-18T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=37998"},"modified":"2010-02-18T10:00:18","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T15:00:18","slug":"haitian-american-artist-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/334996","title":{"rendered":"Haitian-American artist honored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Haitian-American musician and record producer <a href=\"http:\/\/wyclefjean.wordpress.com\/\">Wyclef Jean<\/a> has been named 2010 Artist of the Year by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/~harvfoun\/\">Harvard Foundation<\/a> of Harvard University. The Grammy Award-winning musician will receive the group\u2019s most prestigious medal at the annual <a href=\"http:\/\/harvardfoundation.org\/cr2010\">Cultural Rhythms<\/a> award ceremony on Feb. 27.<\/p>\n<p>The Harvard Cultural Rhythms festival will begin that day at 3 p.m. in Sanders Theatre. The award will be presented around 4 p.m. There also will be an 8 p.m. performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis contributions to music and distinguished history of creativity have been appreciated by people throughout the world,\u201d said S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation, \u201cand he is admired worldwide for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the people of Haiti.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jean began his musical career as part of the Fugees, a hip-hop trio that rose to fame in 1996 with its second album, \u201cThe Score.\u201d The multiplatinum record earned the group two Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album.<\/p>\n<p>Jean launched his solo career in 1997 with \u201cThe Carnival,\u201d which featured artists such as C\u00e9lia Cruz and fellow Fugees Pras and Lauryn Hill. Praise for the multiplatinum album emphasized its musical influences, including hip-hop, reggae, folk, disco, soul, \u201cSon Cubano,\u201d and Haitian music. The album earned Jean three Grammy nominations, including Best Rap Album. He has since received three more nominations, including one for \u201cMillion Voices,\u201d which also earned a 2005 Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture (\u201cHotel Rwanda\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>He is widely known for his humanitarian work through the <a href=\"http:\/\/yele.org\/\">Y\u00e9le Haiti Foundation<\/a>, which promotes sports and the arts in Haiti. This support includes thousands of annual scholarships, soccer programs for at-risk youth, and free outdoor films in neighborhoods without electricity. The organization distributes food to communities in need throughout Haiti and mobilizes emergency disaster relief, including its current efforts in response to the devastating earthquake in the Port-au-Prince area.<\/p>\n<p>The Harvard Foundation, the University\u2019s center for intercultural arts and sciences initiatives, honors the nation\u2019s most acclaimed artists and scientists each year. Previous awards have been presented to such artists as Sharon Stone, Andy Garcia, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Halle Berry, Jackie Chan, Denzel Washington, Salma Hayek, and Herbie Hancock.<\/p>\n<p>For performance times and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/~harvfoun\/cr2010\/tickets.html\">ticket information<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haitian-American musician and record producer Wyclef Jean has been named 2010 Artist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation of Harvard University. The Grammy Award-winning musician will receive the group\u2019s most prestigious medal at the annual Cultural Rhythms award ceremony on Feb. 27. The Harvard Cultural Rhythms festival will begin that day at 3 p.m. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}