More performers have canceled their shows at the newly renamed Trump-Kennedy Center.
Earlier this month, the White House announced President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the performing arts institution in Washington, D.C., per Fox News.
The jazz septet, The Cookers, was to perform twice on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. But, the group announced Monday it was canceling its shows.
“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” the Cookers said in a statement. “Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us. 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.”
The band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times Trump’s name being added to the performing arts center “evidently” was a factor in the group’s cancellation.
Also, Doug Varone and Dancers said Monday that the New York dance company would no longer perform at the Kennedy Center. Its shows were originally scheduled for April.
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell posted on X those who have canceled their shows were booked under the former, “far left leadership.”
“The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” Grenell wrote Monday. “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. Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome. The arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it.”
The Kennedy Center’s board voted allegedly unanimously to rename the institution the “Trump–Kennedy Center” earlier this month.
The next day, Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center’s exterior wall and its website header was updated to “The Trump Kennedy Center.”
More performers have canceled, including jazz musician Chuck Redd who pulled out of his Christmas Eve performance.
“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press Wednesday.
Trump currently serving as the Kennedy Center board chair. Kennedy Center Board of Trustees members include second lady Usha Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.
