Adrienne Rich refused the National Medal for the Arts.

” I could not accept such an award from president Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration.
I believe in art’s social presence – as a breaker of official silence, as a voice for those whose voices are disregarded, and as a human birthright…I do not know that art – in any case, the art of Poetry – means nothing if it simple decorate the dinner table of power which holds it hostage.
The radical disparity of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate…”