Additional performers have scrapped their planned shows at the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the venue, with the jazz ensemble The Cookers withdrawing from a scheduled New Year’s Eve performance, while the facility’s president claims these cancellations reveal the artists’ refusal to let their music bridge political divides.
This new wave of cancellations following Trump’s branding of the building comes after a previous protest by artists last spring. When Trump removed the Kennedy Center’s board and appointed himself chairman in February, actress Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” called off their scheduled appearances, and musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming resigned from their advisory positions.
The Cookers, a jazz collective that has performed together for almost twenty years, posted on their website that they were pulling out of “A Jazz New Year’s Eve,” noting that the “decision materialized very rapidly” and expressing understanding for the disappointment of potential attendees.
While the group made no direct reference to the venue’s renaming or the Trump administration, they stated that upon their return to performing, they want to guarantee that “the space can celebrate the complete presence of the music and all who are in it,” reaffirming their dedication “to creating music that spans divides instead of intensifying them.”
Although the group didn’t directly confront the Kennedy Center issue, one member has spoken out. On Saturday, saxophonist Billy Harper wrote in a post on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never consider playing in a venue whose name (and the type of board controlling it) embodies blatant racism and intentional destruction of African American music and culture—the very music I’ve dedicated my life to producing and promoting.”
Per the White House, Trump’s personally selected board. Harper stated that both the board “and the name on the building itself symbolize a mindset and actions I’ve consistently opposed. And I continue to do so, now more than ever.”
Richard Grenell, a Trump supporter appointed by the president to lead the Kennedy Center after pushing out the former management, wrote Monday night on that “The performers currently canceling were scheduled by the previous far-left administration,” suggesting the arrangements were made during the Biden presidency.
In comments to The Associated Press on Tuesday, Grenell said the “eleventh-hour cancellations demonstrate they were never prepared to entertain all audiences—including those with differing political views,” and claimed the Kennedy Center has been “inundated with requests from genuine artists ready to perform for everyone and who eschew political messaging in their work.”
Kennedy Center representatives did not immediately comment on whether they would take legal measures against the group, as Grenell had threatened after musician Chuck Redd . Following Redd’s cancellation, which he attributed to the Kennedy Center’s renaming, Grenell announced he would pursue $1 million in compensation for what he termed a “political stunt.”
Some artists are not canceling their appearances. Bluegrass banjo player Randy Barrett, set to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the AP he is “profoundly disturbed by the politicalization” of the venue and respects those who withdrew, but believes that “our divided nation requires more music and art, not less. It’s among the few forces that can unite us.”
President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963, and Congress enacted legislation the next year designating the center as a living tribute to him. Experts have stated that altering the building’s name would require congressional authorization; the trustees from converting the center into a memorial for any other individual, or from placing another person’s name on the building’s facade.
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Associated Press journalists Steven Sloan and Hillel Italie contributed to this article.