Springfield Museums Announce 2023 Ubora, Ahadi Award Recipients
The African Hall Committee of the Springfield Museums announced the recipients of the 2023 Ubora Award and Ahadi Youth Award, which will be presented at a ceremony at the museums on Saturday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m.
Lisa Green, a distinguished professor at UMass Massachusetts Amherst, is this year’s Ubora Award recipient, and Catherine Thompson, a 2023 graduate of Springfield Central High School who is headed to Johns Hopkins University, was chosen for the Ahadi Youth Award.
Named for the Swahili word meaning ‘excellence,’ the Ubora Award has been awarded annually since 1992 to an African-American adult who has demonstrated a commitment to Greater Springfield and has exhibited excellence in the fields of community service, education, science, humanities, or the arts.
Green is an expert in syntax and African-American English (AAE). She founded the Center for the Study of African American Language at UMass in 2006 and has directed it ever since. She is also the author of two books and is working on a third, all published by Cambridge University Press.