Chita Rivera Announced for Kennedy Center Honors Advisory Committee

Broadway legend Chita Rivera will join a newly former six-person committee that will aid in the selection process for the Kennedy Center honors, according to The Washington Post. Rivera and her co-committee members will serve five-year terms and choose 10 to 20 candidates to put forward for the selection process.

Rivera, the only Hispanic woman to have received the honor, is part of an effort to diversify the annual Kennedy Center Honors. The awards selection process came under suspicion after Hispanic advocacy groups questioned why only two of 186 honorees were Hispanic.

Rivera last appeared on Broadway in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She earned Tony Awards for Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Rink. Her other Broadway credits include Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago, Merlin, Nine and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. 

The award celebrates significant cultural contributions to the arts.