More artists have canceled scheduled shows at the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility, with jazz giant The Cookers pulling out of a planned New Year’s Eve concert, and the foundation’s president said the cancellations contradicted artists’ unwillingness to see their music as crossing lines of political disparity.
The new round of cancellations after Trump put his name on the building follows an earlier backlash for artists in the spring. After Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and appointed himself president of the foundation in February, entertainer Issa Rae and “Hamilton” producers canceled scheduled engagements while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has been performing together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from New Year’s Eve Jazz on their website, saying the “decision was made too quickly” and acknowledging the frustration felt by those who may have planned to attend.
The group did not mention the renaming of the building or the Trump administration, but said that, when they return to performing, they want to make sure “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” emphasizing a commitment to “playing music that reaches across sections rather than deepening it.”
The group may not have directly addressed the situation at the Kennedy Center, but one of its members did. On Saturday, saxophonist Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never consider performing at a venue with a name (and board control) that represents the blatant racism and willful destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I have dedicated my life to creating and developing.”
According to the White House, Trump’s select board of directors approved the renaming. Both the plaque “and the name displayed on the building itself represent a mindset and practices that I have always opposed. And I still oppose today more than ever,” Harper said.
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president picked to head the Kennedy Center after he fired previous leadership, posted Monday night on
In a statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said Tuesday that “the last-minute cancellations prove that they have always been unwilling to perform for everyone — even those with whom they disagree politically,” adding that the Kennedy Center “has been inundated with inquiries from genuine artists who want to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their art.”
There was no immediate comment from Kennedy Center officials if the entity would take legal action against the group, as Grenell said it would after musician Chuck Reed canceled a show on Christmas Eve. After that withdrawal, in which Reid cited the renaming of the Kennedy Center, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt.”
Not all artists perform. Bluegrass banjo player Randy Barrett, scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the Associated Press that he is “deeply disturbed by the politicization” of the venue and respects those who canceled the concert, but feels that “our tribal country needs more music and art, not less. It’s one of the few things that can bring us together.”
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Any changes to the building’s name would need to be approved by Congress, the scientists said. The law expressly prohibits the Board of Trustees from converting the Center into a memorial to anyone else, and from placing another person’s name on the exterior of the building.
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