The Cookers cancel New Year’s Eve shows at renamed Trump Kennedy Center as backlash grows
WASHINGTON — The veteran jazz ensemble the Cookers has canceled its New Year’s Eve performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., becoming the latest group to pull out after the arts institution was renamed to include President Donald Trump’s name.
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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,” the band said in a statement announcing its withdrawal. “Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us.”
The Kennedy Center had promoted the two New Year’s Eve shows by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.”
The decision adds to a growing list of cancellations since the center’s board voted this month to rename the venue The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, shortened to the Trump Kennedy Center. Workers affixed signage adding Trump’s name to the facade earlier this month, underscoring the change as the holiday performance schedule approached.
Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally whom the president installed as the center’s leader, has dismissed the cancellations as a “political stunt.”
Last week, a Christmas Eve jazz concert was canceled; its host, musician Chuck Redd, attributed the decision to the name change. The New York Times reported that Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York company, has also pulled out of two April performances.
Democrats have called the board’s move to add Trump’s name to the institution illegal, and members of President John F. Kennedy’s family have denounced the change as undermining the slain president’s legacy. Trump has filled the board with allies during a broad takeover earlier this year, consolidating influence at one of Washington’s marquee cultural venues.
The renaming has reignited political battles over the capital’s institutions. Trump has sought to put his stamp on Washington and his name on buildings in his second term, while critics accuse him of compromising independent cultural and civic bodies by installing loyalists and making funding threats. Trump says he is addressing what he calls liberal bias within such institutions.
The Cookers, formed by acclaimed veterans of the hard-bop tradition, framed their decision through the history and ethos of jazz itself, emphasizing artistic freedom as central to the music. Their withdrawal deprives the center of a high-profile year-end program that was set to cap the holiday calendar with a marquee jazz celebration.
The immediate impact for ticket holders was not announced by the center. The cancellations, however, reflect wider unease among performers and arts organizations as the renamed Trump Kennedy Center navigates fallout from a decision that has sharply polarized the nation’s cultural community.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
