The award will give each recipient $800,000. It is paid out in quarterly installments for five years. But more importantly, the honor elevates their work into the public eye and gives them valuable time to continue pursuing their work in line with the philanthropist foundation’s larger goal of “building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.”Related: Here are the four queer recipients of the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship award: Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Justin Vivian Bond – performer “I have always thought of cabaret as a form of political resistance. She said, “I think cabaret is at its best beautiful and powerful music.” It is very powerful to create beauty when faced with beauty or hatred. It allows you to be beautiful, have a rich inner life and to express that outwardly.” Jericho Brown – poet “Poems are meant to be difficult, and their difficulty is that they take that which is tender and that which is violent, and they put them side by side, so that we better see and understand ourselves,” Brown said. Brown said that his poems were ultimately about loneliness, and the condition of the human being. If you realize that loneliness is something that everyone goes through, it can be a gateway to love, joy, and celebration. And poems allow for that in a way that no other art can.” Shamel Pitts – choreographer