Multiple performers are pulling out of their scheduled performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, seemingly because of President Donald Trump.
As the National Enquirer reported earlier this month, a Trump-appointed board voted to change the name of the historic arts center to the Trump-Kennedy Center.
On Monday, December 29, the jazz band The Cookers announced they would no longer be going forward with their New Year’s Eve performances.
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“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” a statement on their website read. “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 statement continued. “Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment.”
The group’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the name change had “evidently” shaped their decision not to perform.
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Meanwhile, the dance company Doug Varone and Dancers took to Instagram on Monday to announce they were cancelling their upcoming performances.
“While 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,” they wrote in part. “However, 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.”
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