The Kennedy Center already saw a Christmas concert canceled in protest of its recent name change. Now, a pair of shows scheduled to take place at the once-prestigious Washington, DC, venue on New Year’s Eve has been called off, also reportedly due its board’s decision to rebrand as “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
The New York Times reports that a pair of NYE concerts to be performed by the jazz supergroup The Cookers has been canceled. In a statement the group said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.” Speaking separately to The Times, The Cookers’ drummer Billy Hart said the Kennedy Center’s name change “evidently” factored into their decision to pull out of the gigs, and added that the group was concerned about possible reprisals.
Prior to announcing the shows’ cancellation, Billy Harper, a saxophonist in The Cookers, posted on Facebook 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.” He added, “… 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.”
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Along with The Cookers, two other Kennedy Center performers have called off their scheduled gigs in recent days. Doug Varone and Dancers said they would no longer appear at the venue in April, while folk singer Kristy Lee pulled the plug on a show set for mid-January.
These cancellations follow jazz musician Chuck Redd’s decision earlier this month to scrap his annual Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center in protest of its name change. In response, the venue’s president, Kennedy Center president Rick Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages from Redd over what he deemed to be a “political stunt.”
Numerous other artists have also severed ties with the Kennedy Center since Trump’s takeover of the venue, including Rhiannon Giddens, Ben Folds, and Renée Fleming. A touring production of Hamilton will also no longer stage at the center.
