Two more artistic groups announced that they have canceled upcoming performances at the Kennedy Center, adding to a growing list of acts that have chosen not to perform at the storied institution after its board of directors announced earlier this month that it would\u00a0add President Donald Trump\u2019s name\u00a0to the venue.<\/p>\n
Jazz supergroup the Cookers, scheduled to perform two concerts at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday as part of \u201cA Jazz New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d have canceled both shows, the band announced on Monday. Doug Varone and Dancers, a decades-old performance group, also said on Monday that they had decided to cancel two performances scheduled for April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we totally disagreed with the takeover by the Trump Administration at the Kennedy Center, we still believed it was important to honor our engagement out of respect for both Jane Raleigh and Alicia Adams, who curated a first-rate dance season, as well as for the dance audiences in DC,\u201d the dance company\u00a0said\u00a0on social media, referencing two prominent former employees who are\u00a0reportedly no longer with the institution. \u201cHowever, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted earlier this month to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center, an unprecedented change for the U.S. presidential memorial that drew swift condemnation from Kennedy family members and Democratic leaders. Trump\u2019s name\u00a0was added to the exterior of the building a day after the board\u2019s vote. Some legal experts have said that only Congress can change the center\u2019s official name.<\/p>\n
The cancellations on Monday came days after musician Chuck Redd\u00a0pulled out\u00a0of his annual Christmas Eve jazz concert, and after folk singer Kristy Lee announced she had canceled a concert scheduled for mid-January.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else\u2019s ego, I can\u2019t stand on that stage and sleep right at night,\u201d Lee\u00a0wrote on social media\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n
A production of the musical \u201cHamilton,\u201d a concert by Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning folk musician Rhiannon Giddens and a show by comedian and television producer Issa Rae that were set to take place at the center were canceled earlier in the year, after\u00a0Trump\u2019s takeover of the institution\u00a0in February.<\/p>\n
A statement posted on the Cookers\u2019 website\u00a0did not explicitly mention Trump or the Kennedy Center, but said, \u201cJazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo everyone who is disappointed or upset, we understand and share your sadness. We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
Cookers band member David Weiss declined to comment further when reached by email.<\/p>\n
Saxophonist Billy Harper, a member of the Cookers who played in groups with Art Blakey and Max Roach, was more explicit about not wanting to perform at the Kennedy Center in\u00a0an interview quoted on the Facebook group Jazz Stage\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d he said. \u201c… After all the years I spent working with some of the greatest heroes of the anti-racism fight like Max Roach and Randy Weston and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stanley Cowell, I know they would be turning in their graves to see me stand on a stage under such circumstances and betray all we fought for, and sacrificed for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell,\u00a0a Trump appointee, responded to the cancellations with a post\u00a0on social media\u00a0Monday evening, saying, \u201cThe arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cBoycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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