USDEC 30, 2025
Kennedy Center Faces Eleventh-Hour New Year’s Cancellations Amid Trump Rename Backlash
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Donald Trump may have gotten his name on the Kennedy Center, but artists are refusing to perform at the cultural center.
Earlier in December, singer Kristy Lee, who was scheduled to perform on January 14, reported being in the process of cancelling her show.
“I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts,” she said in a social media post. “This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.”
Highlights
- Artists are canceling shows at the Kennedy Center after Trump added his name to the venue, protesting the politicization of the arts space.
- The Cookers jazz band and Doug Varone and Dancers have canceled multiple performances, citing moral reasons despite financial losses.
- The Kennedy Center renamed to include Trump’s name after he became board chair, sparking controversy and legal challenges.
Since then, more artists have cancelled their performances, protesting against President Donald Trump putting his name on the center.
More artists are cancelling performances at the Kennedy Center following the addition of Trump’s name to it
Image credits: Heather Diehl/Getty Images
The Cookers, a six-person jazz band, is one such group that has cancelled its two shows at the venue on New Year’s Eve.
“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 wrote on their website.
Billy Hart, the band’s drummer, told The New York Times that Trump’s decision to add himself to the historic arts center was “evidently” a factor.
Image credits: The Cookers
Another band that has cancelled a show at the now-called Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts is New York dance company Doug Varone and Dancers. The troupe canceled two performances that were planned for April.
“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” Varone told the Times, adding that his company would lose $40,000.
Even an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert was canceled by its host, Chuck Redd, a musician who has hosted the show for nearly two decades. He said earlier in December that he called off the performance after learning that the name was being changed on the center’s building in Washington, D.C.
An anonymous performer told NOTUS that the name change undermines the center’s nonpartisan role. “I feel really badly for performers, not just for performers but for the people who work there,” the artist said.
“Kennedy Center is supposed to be a memorial, focusing on being nonpartisan. A place where people, it doesn’t matter what party they believe in, should be performing and experiencing the arts together regardless of what their party is. And it has not become that.”
They continued, “It’s no longer a focus on the arts, and it’s very sad. And I know a lot of the people that I perform with are very sad.”
The name change follows broader leadership changes at the Kennedy Center. Earlier this year, Trump was elected chair of the board after several trustees were removed.
Longtime Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter was ousted in February, and the board now includes several current officials from the Trump administration.
‘It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,’ one artist said
Image credits: Shannon Finney/Getty Images
Members on the board include White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Second Lady Usha Vance, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, and Allison Lutnick, the wife of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
While the administration said the vote to add Trump’s name to the historical building was “unanimous,” Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, posted on social media that her microphone was “muted” when she tried to speak out against the name change.
Beatty has since filed a lawsuit to remove Trump’s name from the institution.
The name change has been deemed unconstitutional by some lawmakers, who argue that changing the Kennedy Center’s name requires congressional approval because the original name was set by federal law in 1964.
Kennedy Center Interim President Richard Grenell said artists canceling shows were “far-left political activists” and that they had been booked by previous leadership.
“Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Grenell has also threatened to sue Redd for $1 million for cancelling the Christmas Eve show, calling it “classic intolerance.”
“Your dismal ticket sales and lack of donor support, combined with your last-minute cancellation has cost us considerably. This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” Grenell wrote to Redd.
Image credits: The Kennedy Center
But Kennedy Center ticket sales have been declining this year, with former Kennedy Center dance director Jane Raleigh telling The Athletic that subscription rates were “down about 50% over where they should have been.”
Since Trump was elected chair of the board, subscription sales at the venue have dropped 36% compared to last year, translating to a $1.6 million decline, The Washington Post reported, and The New York Times reported that single-ticket sales fell by 50% in April and May,