Demonstrators, together with Nadine Siler, of Waldorf, Md., wearing a pink frog costume, maintain up indicators at a chosen protest level in entrance of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Middle for the Performing Arts, a day after a Trump-appointed board voted so as to add President Donald Trump’s title to the Kennedy Middle, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Picture/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/AP
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/AP
The Kennedy Middle is ending the 12 months with a brand new spherical of artists saying they’re canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump’s title was added to the ability, prompting the establishment’s president to accuse the performers of constructing their selections due to politics.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has carried out collectively for practically twenty years, introduced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New 12 months’s Eve” on their web site, saying the “resolution has come collectively in a short time” and acknowledging frustration from those that might have deliberate to attend.
Doug Varone and Dancers, a dance group based mostly in New York, mentioned in an Instagram publish late Monday they’d pull out of a efficiency slated for April, saying they “can now not allow ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this as soon as nice establishment.”
These strikes come after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve efficiency final week. Additionally they come amid declining gross sales for tickets to the venue, in addition to information that viewership for the Dec. 23 broadcast of the Kennedy Middle Honors — which Trump had predicted would soar — was down by about 35% in comparison with the 2024 present.
The bulletins quantity to a unstable calendar for some of the outstanding performing arts venues within the U.S. and cap a 12 months of stress during which Trump ousted the Kennedy Middle board and named himself the establishment’s chairman. That led to an earlier spherical of artist pushback, with performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” canceling scheduled engagements whereas musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers did not point out the constructing’s renaming or the Trump administration however did say that, once they return to performing, they wished to make sure that “the room is ready to rejoice the total presence of the music and everybody in it,” reiterating a dedication “to enjoying music that reaches throughout divisions reasonably than deepening them.”
The group might not have addressed the Kennedy Middle scenario immediately, however considered one of its members has. On Saturday, saxophone participant Billy Harper mentioned in feedback posted on the Jazz Stage Fb web page that he “would by no means even contemplate performing in a venue bearing a reputation (and being managed by the form of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and tradition. The identical music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”
In response to the White Home, Trump’s handpicked board authorized the renaming. Harper mentioned each the board “in addition to the title displayed on the constructing itself represents a mentality and practices I all the time stood towards. And nonetheless do, in the present day greater than ever.”
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president selected to go the Kennedy Middle after he pressured out the earlier management, posted Monday night time on X, “The artists who are actually canceling reveals had been booked by the earlier far left management,” intimating the bookings had been made below the Biden administration.
In a press release Tuesday to The Related Press, Grenell mentioned the “final minute cancellations show that they had been all the time unwilling to carry out for everybody — even these they disagree with politically,” including that the Kennedy Middle had been “flooded with inquiries from actual artists keen to carry out for everybody and who reject political statements of their artistry.”
There was no quick phrase from Kennedy Middle officers about whether or not the entity would pursue authorized motion towards the most recent spherical of artists to cancel performances. Following Redd’s cancellation final week, Grenell mentioned he would search $1 million in damages for what he referred to as a “political stunt.”
Not all artists are calling off their reveals. Bluegrass banjoist Randy Barrett, scheduled to carry out on the Kennedy Middle subsequent month, instructed the AP he was “deeply troubled by the politicization” of the venue and revered those that had canceled however feels that “our tribalized nation wants extra music and artwork, not much less. It is one of many few issues that may convey us collectively.”
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress handed a legislation the next 12 months naming the middle as a residing memorial to him. Students have mentioned any modifications to the constructing’s title would wish congressional approval; the legislation explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the middle right into a memorial to anybody else, and from placing one other particular person’s title on the constructing’s exterior.
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Related Press writers Steven Sloan and Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
