A cherished Christmas Eve jazz concert at Washington's famed Kennedy Centre has been abruptly cancelled after its host pulled out in protest against the venue's controversial rebranding to include former President Donald Trump's name.
Artist Protest Over "Trump Kennedy Centre" Rebrand
Famed drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd, who has presided over the holiday Jazz Jams at the centre since 2006, called off this year's event. The concert was a holiday tradition stretching back more than two decades. Redd stated he was "saddened" to see the institution's name altered.
"When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Centre website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert," Redd explained in an email to the Associated Press. The centre's façade now reads The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts, a change implemented as of last Friday.
Redd, a veteran musician who has toured with legends like Dizzy Gillespie, added in a statement to CNN: "I've been performing at the Kennedy Centre since the beginning of my career and I was saddened to see this name change."
Legal and Political Backlash Intensifies
The renaming, approved by a board handpicked by President Trump, has ignited a fierce legal and political dispute. Scholars and critics argue it violates a 1964 Act of Congress that established the centre as a living memorial to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. The law explicitly prohibits the board from making it a memorial to anyone else or adding another name to the building's exterior.
Former House historian Ray Smock is among those asserting that only Congress can authorise such a change. The move has also drawn ire from the Kennedy family. Kerry Kennedy, the former president's niece, pledged to take a "pickax" to the letters forming Trump's name once he leaves office.
In a significant escalation, Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and a non-voting member of the Centre's board, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration. She alleges the renaming is unlawful and claims the vote was misleadingly presented as unanimous while she was silenced.
A Wider Cultural Clash at Federal Institutions
The jazz concert cancellation is not an isolated incident. It forms part of a broader pattern of artists distancing themselves from the centre since Trump's return to office. Notable cancellations include Issa Rae, Peter Wolf, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who called off a planned production of Hamilton.
President Trump has taken a deeply involved role in the centre, a departure from his first term. He has overhauled its leadership, arranged to chair its board, and personally hosted this year's Kennedy Centre Honors, breaking with the tradition of presidents being mere spectators. The White House frames these changes as part of a larger mission to combat "woke" culture within federal cultural institutions.
While the Trump administration defends the move by citing precedents like the renaming of military bases, opponents see it as a partisan alteration of a bipartisan national treasure. As the legal battle unfolds and the festive season arrives, the iconic building on the Potomac finds itself at the heart of America's ongoing cultural wars.
