Kani, Kohler join Hollywood’s A-listers

Six South Africans – two of them raised and trained in Port Elizabeth – have been awarded gold medals by the Kennedy Centre International Committee on the Arts.

Handing over the medals at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town‚ US consul-general Virginia Blaser said: “It makes me extraordinarily proud to see an American institution such as the Kennedy Centre reach out across the globe to recognise talented artists.”

The South Africans honoured were Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler‚ founders of the Handspring Puppet Company; actor‚ director and playwright John Kani; singer Sibongile Khumalo; author‚ poet‚ playwright‚ director‚ performer and storyteller Gcina Mhlophe; and jazz musician McCoy Mrubata.

They join the likes of actors Michael Caine and Judi Dench‚ and singers Placido Domingo and Van Morrison‚ who have been awarded the gold medals for extraordinary achievement in the arts since 2005.
Kani told The Herald Friday night that he had been overwhelmed by the award. “And I feel very proud. They did not just look at a single play or story, but at the body of work you have done and your life – how you lived it. This makes it a very special honour, especially for a person who comes from Port Elizabeth – so far from a place like Washington DC,” Kani said.

He said congratulations had been streaming in from around the world and even from some cast members of the new hit movie Black Panther.

An equally delighted Adrian Kohler, who started his puppet career in Redhouse, said the award had come as a complete surprise.

“It was really unexpected. And of course it is a great honour and we are really pleased. We know a number of people involved, such as John Kani, whom we knew very well from the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, so the event was a bit of a reunion, which was also fantastic,” he said. “So it was wonderful to be honoured in this way and to be honoured in such wonderful company.” – Additional reporting TimesLIVE