The Kennedy Center has been hit with a series of abrupt cancellations in the wake of its board of trustees’ decision to add President Donald Trump’s name to the landmark performing arts institution. Just days before they were set to perform twice on New Year’s Eve, the jazz group the Cookers backed out of the gig.
In a statement, the group said, "With deep regret, we must share that we are unable to perform as planned on New Year’s Eve." They explained that the decision came together very quickly and that they remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them. While the group did not provide details behind the decision, Billy Hart, the Cookers’ drummer, told The New York Times that the center’s name change "evidently" played a role in the cancellation, noting concerns about the potential for retaliation.
The New York City-based dance company Doug Varone and Dancers also announced on Monday that they’re canceling their performances set for April, stating, "With the latest act of Donald J. Trump renaming the center after himself, we can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution."
Kristy Lee, a folk singer-songwriter who was slated to perform on January 14, also canceled her show due to the name change. She said last week in a social media post, "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."
CNN reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment. The center’s president, Richard Grenell, dismissed the cancellations as "a form of derangement syndrome" in a post on Monday night. He said, "The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far-left leadership. Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far-left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs."
The cancellations come after the board of trustees voted earlier this month to rename the center "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," marking the president’s latest effort to leave his mark on the Washington, DC arts institution. The center updated its website with the new name hours later and installed signage adding Trump’s name to the front of the building the next day.
The change prompted the longtime host of the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve jazz performance to cancel last week’s concert. Musician Chuck Redd told CNN last week, "I've been performing at the Kennedy Center since the beginning of my career and I was saddened to see this name change."
Grenell criticized Redd in a letter the center shared with CNN, calling the drummer and vibraphonist's decision to cancel "classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit arts institution." He also faulted Redd for the financial fallout of the cancellation and said the center would seek $1 million in damages.
Before the renaming, Trump’s aggressive push to reshape the Kennedy Center had already prompted some artists to back away from the venue. After Trump’s handpicked board elected him chair in February, artists including Issa Rae, Renée Fleming, Shonda Rhimes, and Ben Folds resigned from their leadership roles or canceled events at the space. Jeffrey Seller, producer of the hit musical “Hamilton,” also canceled the show’s planned run earlier this year.
Since taking over, the president has hosted the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month and touted the restoration of the exterior marble, interior chairs, and “fully” renovated stages which he says will be complete within a year. Before the board’s vote to rename the performing arts center after him, Trump frequently joked about calling it “the Trump Kennedy Center.”
The change has raised legal concerns as to whether the board has the authority to rename the arts institution, which Congress designated in 1964 as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy following his assassination. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex-officio trustee of the board, sued the president in federal court to challenge the name change. She said that she was muted on Zoom during the board meeting when she tried to speak up in objection to the vote and argued in the lawsuit that the vote and the addition of Trump’s name to
