A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump.
The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled.
The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”
But the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the center’s name change had “evidently” played a role. He acknowledged that the group was concerned about possible reprisals.
Donald J Trump is the most unpopular U.S. president the modern world has ever experienced, so one could argue that a) by smearing his shitty name on a once-respected venue, Trump made the place political and b) by literally changing the name of the venue, the artist can claim they are no longer legally bound by their original contract, which was with the John F Kennedy Performing ArtsCenter and NOT the Donald Trump by way of the JFK Performing Arts Center.