CHICAGO – A violinist who hosts concerts for the homeless, a professor whose research is used to increase poor communities' access to civil justice, and an activist pastor are among MacArthur's recipients this year and recipients of so-called grants genius.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Thursday named 25 people, including academics, activists, artists, academics and scientists, who will receive $ 625,000 over five years for their own use.

The Chicago-based foundation has been awarding scholarships annually since 1981 to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional talent to contribute to the pursuit of their creative, professional or intellectual pursuits. Potential candidates are brought to the attention of the foundation by an anonymous group of candidates. The selected persons are sworn to secrecy until the announcement of their names.

The first violinist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vijay Gupta, said that he was "rather overwhelmed" when he stated that he had been named a MacArthur Fellow. He has been honored to be the co-founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, which has been performing in homeless shelters, jails and halfway houses for about eight years.

"They reminded me why I became a musician," Gupta said of the homeless. "Artists have a role to play in telling the truth about what is happening in our world today."

Gupta, 31, had the idea of ​​Street Symphony as he was teaching Nathaniel Ayers, a Juilliard-trained musician whose mental illness had led to homelessness and who had inspired the movie "The Soloist".

"I grew up around mental illness," Gupta said, noting that he had experienced it. "Our goal is to find more artists who are eager to have not only their artistic talent, but also to be told their human story."

Gupta, who won a spot at the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 19, said he had no idea how he would spend the money, but that it gave him the money. opportunity to think.

"I've been performing all my life, playing the violin at age 4 and on stage at age 7," he said. "I have never had the opportunity to sit down and think about what my life will be like. This gives me a little space to breathe, plan and look ahead.

Rebecca Sandefur, Associate Professor of Sociology and Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Cecilia Conrad, Executive Director of the MacArthur Fellows program, gave her the award. She happened to be on campus and asked to meet on an unrelated matter.

"It was an extraordinary experience and a complete shock," Sandefur said. "It was not something you expect."

Sandefur's research promotes a new approach to increasing poor communities' access to the justice system. It created the first national mapping of civil legal aid providers, revealing which states had the resources to provide this assistance and which ones did not. She also determined that cost is just one of many factors that prevent the poor from hiring a lawyer. Other problems include aversion to lawyers, fear and pessimism about the fairness of the legal system and lack of understanding of what constitutes a legal issue.

Sandefur, 47, says that while the problems in the criminal justice system have received a lot of attention, they have not paid enough attention to the civil law side.

"It also affects millions of people," she said. "A person can lose a house or be evicted, do not see children after a divorce proceeding or get unemployment insurance that is due to them."

Sandefur said the prize would be important to advance his work.

"We will take action to solve a problem that has existed for a long time," she said.

Gregg Gonsalves, 54, is a global health advocate and assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University. A long-time advocate of HIV / AIDS, his research focuses on the use of quantitative analysis and operational research to improve responses to public health challenges around the world. He co-founded the Global Partnership on Justice for Justice at Yale to advance the perspectives of human rights and social justice in the areas of public health, legal research and law enforcement. ;education.

Matthew Aucoin, a 28-year-old composer, conductor and resident artist at Los Angeles Opera, is another winner this year. Aucoin composes instrumental works ranging from pieces for soloists to compositions for choir and orchestra. His operatic work "Crossing", inspired by Walt Whitman's diary in his work on civil war and wounded soldiers, was created in 2015.

William J. Barber II, pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, Calif., And founder of the Leadership Development Organization, Repairers of the Breach, have also been named members. In 2017, Barber began a series of rallies around the "Moral Monday" outside Capitol Hill, North Carolina, to protest laws cracking down on voter turnout.

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