A couple of weeks ago, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center would change its name to the Trump-Kennedy Center. Jazz musician Chuck Redd responded by canceling his annual Christmas Eve concert at the venue, and venue president Richard Grenell threatened Redd with a million-dollar lawsuit. But the potential of a lawsuit hasn’t stopped more artists from canceling their planned Kennedy Center performances in protest.
As The New York Times reports, jazz septet the Cookers have canceled a planned New Year’s Eve gig at the Kennedy Center. In a statement on their website, the group says, “We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it… We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.” Drummer Billy Hart says that the venue’s name change “evidently” played a role in their decision.
Alabama folk singer Kristy Lee has also canceled a planned free Kennedy Center concert that was set to take place Jan. 14. On Instagram, Lee writes, “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night.”
New York dance company Doug Varone And The Dancers have canceled plans for a pair of Kennedy Center performances in April. Varone, the company’s head, tells the Times that the decision will cost them $40,000: “It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating… We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”
Richard Grenell, the guy who threatened to sue Chuck Redd, tells the Times that the “far-left political activists” canceling their performances were booked under previous venue leadership and that “boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome.”
