Christmas, New Year's Eve Concerts Cancelled at Kennedy Center in Protest of Trump Name Change

The once-prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. has faced massive backlash since its Trump takeover and name change to the Trump-Kennedy Center, including the cancellation of a Christmas concert and a pair of New Year’s Eve gigs.

Earlier this month, the Kennedy Center board — which includes almost all Trump appointees — voted to rename the venue “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The name change sparked controversy across the country.

Last week, Chuck Redd pulled the plug on his annual “Jazz Jams” Christmas Concert at the Kennedy Center, confirming in a statement to The Associated Press that “when I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”

The venue was quick to fire back; Kennedy Center president (and longtime Trump loyalist) Richard Grenell said he plans to seek $1 million in damages from Redd’s last-minute cancellation — or in his words — “political stunt.”

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” Grenell wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Redd isn’t alone; according to The New York Times, a pair of New Year’s Eve concerts by the jazz supergroup The Cookers have also been called-off. The group noted in a statement that “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’ drummer Billy Hart said that the venue’s name change “evidently” led to their decision to cancel the gigs. The band’s saxophonist Billy Harper previously wrote 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.”

Alongside the holiday shows, folk singer Kristy Lee cancelled a show in January, while Doug Varone and Dancers said they would no longer perform at the venue in April.

The Kennedy Center has faced criticism and political scrutiny since Trump’s appointment. The President previously said that he plans to eliminate drag shows and “woke” art at the venue, though admitted he has never actually seen a show at the institution. Shows have been cancelled, including the production “Finn” and the award-winning “Hamilton.” “Legally Blonde” has also been postponed.

Additionally, longtime member Jeffrey Finn, who has overseen programming at the Washington, D.C. venue since 2016, announced his departure from the venue earlier this year. This was the latest departure at The Kennedy Center after Trump took-over the venue, installed himself as chairman of the board, and replaced Rutter with loyalist Grenell as president.

Since Trump’s new appointees, ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have dropped sharply this fall, with a new Washington Post analysis showing that the venue sold only 57% of its available tickets since September — a steep decline from 93% during the same period last year.