Delayed Kennedy Center Honors to be rescheduled for mid-May

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. This year's recipients of the lifetime artistic achievement awards are country music legend Garth Brooks dancer and actress Debbie Allen, violin virtuoso Midori folk music icon Joan Baez and actor Dick Van Dyke The centerpiece event for Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts normally happens in December, but it was postponed last year amid the pandemic. The entire campus "will come alive with small, in-person events and re-envisioned virtual tributes.” The awards program typically centers around a gala in the Kennedy Center's main theater that includes tributes and performances that are kept secret from the honorees. “It's normally such a festive event, and I'm sure that will come across.” Brooks is no stranger to the Kennedy Center Honors process. “Whatever it is, it's going to be cool.” Midori said she's “truly curious” to see what programmers come up with and hopes the event “represents a step toward normality.” Van Dyke joked that the Kennedy Center “just made it” by granting him the honor at age 95.