Kennedy Center jazz performance canceled due to renaming fight
Holiday sour note: Kennedy Center jazz performance canceled due to Trump renaming fight
An annual Christmas Eve jazz tradition at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was abruptly called off after the venue’s board moved last week to add President Donald Trump’s name to the building.
Chuck Redd, the musician who has overseen the Kennedy Center’s Christmas Eve “Jazz Jams” since 2006, said the decision to cancel the performance came after Trump’s name was added to the venue.
Redd told the Associated Press that seeing the updated name first appear on the Kennedy Center’s website and then on the building itself prompted him to pull the show.
The Kennedy Center’s board unanimously approved a Dec. 18 vote to rename the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” triggering immediate objections from members of the Kennedy family who said the move eroded President John F. Kennedy’s legacy.
Ex officio board member Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) filed a lawsuit on Dec. 22 challenging the move. Beatty argued the board lacks legal authority to alter the center’s name. Federal law still designates the venue as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and the statute that created it does not grant the board power to rename it.
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After Trump returned to the White House on Jan. 20, a number of performers withdrew from scheduled appearances at the Kennedy Center, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, who canceled plans to stage the musical Hamilton at the venue.
Redd’s career has included extensive international touring and collaborations with prominent artists, among them jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, according to his biography.
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