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More artists have cancelled scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center following the addition of U.S. President Donald Trump’s name to the facility, with jazz supergroup the Cookers pulling out of a planned New Year’s Eve concert.
The fresh round of cancellations after Trump put his name on the building follows an earlier artist backlash in spring. After Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and named himself the institution’s chairman in February, performer Issa Rae and the producers of Hamilton cancelled scheduled engagements, while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from advisory roles.
The new board voted to add Trump’s name to the building, formerly known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, earlier this month. The building’s full name is now the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup performing together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from A Jazz New Year’s Eve on their website, saying the “decision has come together very quickly” and acknowledging frustration from those who may have planned to attend.
Issa Rae attends the 75th Emmy Awards. The singer backed out of a performance at the Kennedy Center after Trump took control of the historic institution. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
The group didn’t mention the building’s renaming or the Trump administration but did say that, when they return to performing, they wanted to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
One of the group’s members did openly address the renaming, however. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”
According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Harper said both the board, “as well as the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever.”
The jazz group’s decision comes after a few other artists have pulled out of performances in recent days. Folk singer Kristy Lee announced on social media she’d cancelled a performance scheduled for January, saying performing there would mean losing her integrity.
Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York City dance company, also said on social media on Monday that they would no longer be performing as scheduled in April because adding the Trump name to the building was a bridge too far.
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership, posted Monday night on X, saying, “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership.”
In a statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said Tuesday the “last-minute cancellations prove that they were always unwilling to perform for everyone — even those they disagree with politically.”
He added that the Kennedy Center has been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry.”
Demonstrators protest at the Kennedy Center a day after a Trump-appointed board voted to add the current president’s name to the building, on Dec. 20. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press)
There was no immediate word from Kennedy Center officials if the entity would pursue legal action against the jazz group, as Grenell said it would after musician Chuck Redd cancelled a Christmas Eve performance.
Redd cited the building’s renaming for his withdrawal. Grenell said he would seek $1 million US in damages from Redd for what he called a “political stunt.”
Former U.S. president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the centre as a living memorial to him. Scholars have said any changes to the building’s name would need congressional approval; the law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the centre into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
