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MacArthur Foundation Gives $500,000 'Genius Awards' to 23
By FELICIA R. LEE
Published: September 28, 2004
A barber, a high school debating coach, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, a farmer and a ragtime pianist are among the 23 recipients of $500,000 "genius awards" being announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This is one of the few years women and nonacademics have dominated the list since the annual awards program began in 1981.
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The 13 women and 10 men, ranging in age from 29 to 64, will receive annual checks for $100,000 for the next five years, to be used however they want. Most are unknown to the public, but some are renowned, like Edward P. Jones, 53, who won a Pulitzer this year for his novel "The Known World" (Amistad/HarperCollins), about an African-American slaveowner.
"Edward P. Jones is a fiction writer who renders in story a mysterious incongruity of the human experience - how faith, dignity, and love often survive, and sometimes thrive, in the face of systemic adversity," the foundation said.
Other fellows, as the winners are called, are mostly known in their fields, like Heather Hurst, 29, an archaeological illustrator from New Haven who revives ancient paintings and drawings of the pre-Columbian Americas. Or Reginald Robinson, 31, a self-taught ragtime pianist and composer from Chicago.
"Her paintings and architectural renderings not only recover previously lost records but are works of art in their own right," the foundation said of Ms. Hurst, who has no academic affiliation but has been published in National Geographic and exhibited at the National Gallery of Art.
In citing Mr. Robinson the foundation said, "This singular musician has devoted himself to preserving the traditions of classical ragtime while taking this vintage music into contemporary directions." His introduction to music came through a city-financed arts program in seventh grade.
As in years past, Daniel J. Socolow, the director of the fellows' program, telephoned most of the winners with news of their windfalls. Mr. Socolow said the number of fellows in new areas this year reflects the foundation's search for fresh talent by increasing the number of people nominating fellows across a broader spectrum of fields.
One thing that has not changed, Mr. Socolow said, is the winners' shock and delight.
"When the gentleman called, I was thinking of hanging up on him," said Rueben Martínez, a barber in Santa Ana, Calif., who in 1993 began a bookstore in his barbershop to promote reading among Hispanic people. "I didn't say anything to anyone for hours because I didn't believe it. I'm floating."
How he will use the money, he said, is still a delicious fantasy.
Mr. Martínez, 64, grew up in Miami, Ariz. (80 miles east of Phoenix), where his mother and father were copper miners. "In our little town we never had a bookstore," he said. "We never had a library." But his teachers made him an avid reader who appreciated the beauty and power of books, he said.
"I always had good books in the barbershop - Hemingway, Carlos Fuentes - but people would borrow them and never return them," Mr. Martínez said. "That's where the bookstore idea came from."
Librería Martínez Books and Arts Gallery eventually expanded into its own location, and in 2001 Mr. Martínez opened a second store dedicated to children's literature. He is also a co-founder of the Latino Book Festival, which tours nationally.
"Acclaimed by educators and librarians throughout the country, Martínez's unique brand of entrepreneurship and advocacy is an important complement to institutional and program efforts to enrich and anchor the lives of a large and growing population in America," the foundation said.
Like Mr. Martínez, Cheryl Ann Rogowski said she had been left breathless by Mr. Socolow's call. Ms. Rogowski, 43, is a farmer in Pine Island, N.Y., who has helped create or support several farming projects to help immigrants, migrant farm workers, Hispanics and old people without enough to eat. Her program Senior Share of the Harvest, for instance, gives discounts to the elderly to buy shares in a farm. They can then buy goods at a local farmers' market or have the food delivered.
"Rogowski is an entrepreneur who has revitalized the character of family farming as a commercial enterprise and as an engine of community development," MacArthur officials said in honoring her.
"Now I can write the cookbook I've always wanted to write," Ms. Rogowski said. "The potential is just amazing."
The other winners are Angela Belcher, a nanotechnologist; Gretchen Berland, a physician and filmmaker; James Carpenter, a glass technologist; Joseph L. DeRisi, a molecular biologist; Katherine Gottlieb, an Alaskan health care leader; David Green, a technology transfer innovator; Aleksandar Hemon, a short-story writer; John Kamm, a businessman and human rights strategist; Daphne Koller, a computer scientist; Naomi Leonard, a marine roboticist; Tommie Lindsey, a high school debating coach; Maria Mavroudi, a philologist; Vamsi Mootha, a physician and researcher; Judy Pfaff, a sculptor; Aminah Robinson, a folk artist; Amy Smith, an inventor; Julie Theriot, a microbiologist; and C. D. Wright, a poet.
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