More cancel Kennedy Center gigs after ‘Trump’ added
More artists canceled scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility.
Jazz supergroup The Cookers have pulled out of a planned New Year’s Eve concert, and the institution’s president said the cancellations belied artists’ reluctance to see their music as crossing lines of political inequality.
Jazz supergroup The Cookers, who have performed together for nearly two decades, announced on their website that they were withdrawing from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve,” saying “the decision was made very quickly” and acknowledging the disappointment of those who had planned to attend.
The band didn’t mention the building renaming or the Trump administration, but said they wanted to ensure that when they returned to perform, “the room could celebrate the full existence of the music and everyone in it,” and reiterated its commitment to “playing music that goes beyond divisions rather than deepening them.”
The group may not have directly addressed the Kennedy Center issue, but one of its members did.
On Saturday, saxophonist Billy Harper said in a comment posted on Jazz Stage’s Facebook page that he would “never consider performing at a venue that bears a name (and is controlled by some sort of board of directors) that represents blatant racism and the intentional destruction of African-American music and culture. And I am committed to the music that I have dedicated my life to creating and cultivating.”
Trump’s hand-picked board of directors approved the renaming, according to the White House. Both the board of directors and the name displayed on the building represent a mentality and practices that I have always opposed,” Harper said. “Today, more than ever, I oppose it.”
Trump ally Richard Grenell, whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after challenging previous leadership, posted on
In a statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said Tuesday that “last-minute cancellations prove that they have always been unwilling to perform for anyone, even those with whom they disagree politically,” adding that the Kennedy Center “has been inundated with questions from real artists who are willing to perform for everyone and reject political statements in their art.”
There was no word from Kennedy Center officials on whether the organization would pursue legal action against the group, as Grenell said after musician Chuck Redd canceled his Christmas Eve performance. Following the retraction, in which Redd noted that the Kennedy Center had been renamed, Grenell said he would seek US$1 million ($1.5 million) in damages for what he called a “political demonstration.”
