The Window Keeper: Civic Honors, a new Pennsylvania initiative honoring “everyday leaders” across the state, includes Herman Beavers, the Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt President’s Distinguished Professor of English and Africana Studies in the School of Arts & Sciences, among its inaugural group. Dr. Beavers is one of 25 “Window Keepers” who is recognized for his work bolstering civic life through the humanities.

Created in line with the nation’s 250th anniversary, the Window Keeper initiative runs through PA Humanities, an independent nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project’s name stems from a poem by Philadelphia Poet Laureate Yolanda Wisher, which imagines the Declaration of Independence as a vast window that requires cleaning and upkeep to emit light.

According to an announcement from the organization, Dr. Beavers is included for “his work guiding local veterans in exploring Black history and the works of August Wilson as a professor” at Penn. Dr. Beavers’ wildly popular class on Mr. Wilson has run for nearly a decade, bringing together Penn students and the broader West Philadelphia community.

“Window Keepers are people who are illuminating what’s possible in their communities every day,” noted Laurie Zierer, executive director of PA Humanities, in announcing the inaugural group. “They are contributing to a flourishing civic life in ways that often go unseen. Recognizing these people makes this critical work visible and invites others to be part of it.”