The long-running Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center was called off this week after the White House announced that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the historic venue.
The Cancellation
Musician Chuck Redd, who has hosted the Kennedy Center’s holiday “Jazz Jams” since 2006, decided to cancel the show after seeing the name change on the center’s website and, hours later, on the building’s facade. “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press in an email Wednesday. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Brown, has been a fixture of the center’s winter lineup for more than two decades.
The Kennedy Center’s website now lists the concert as canceled, and the organization has not yet responded to requests for comment.
The Name Change
Last Friday, the building’s exterior was updated to read “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The White House said the decision had been approved by a board that Trump handpicked. Scholars have said the change violates a 1964 law that Congress passed to name the center a living memorial to President Kennedy.
The law specifically bars the board of trustees from turning the center into a memorial for anyone else or from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior. Former House historian Ray Smock and Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy have both said that any removal of Trump’s name would require congressional approval, and Kennedy’s family has vowed to pursue that route once the president leaves office.
Trump had been hinting for months that he was open to renaming the center, and he has been deeply involved in the venue’s governance, forcing out leadership, overhauling the board, and personally hosting this year’s honors-an unprecedented departure from the tradition of presidents as mere spectators.
Broader Reactions
The name change and the resulting cancellations are part of a larger pattern of artists withdrawing from Kennedy Center events since Trump returned to office. Performers such as Issa Rae, Peter Wolf, and Lin-Manuel Miranda have all called off scheduled appearances. The center’s president’s decision to add Trump’s name is seen by some as part of a broader effort to combat what they describe as “woke” culture at federal cultural institutions.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President Kennedy, spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, underscoring the family’s continued opposition to the name change.
Key Takeaways
- Chuck Redd canceled the Christmas Eve jazz concert after the Kennedy Center added Donald Trump’s name to the building.
- The change was approved by a Trump-handpicked board, a move scholars say violates a 1964 law protecting the center’s status as a Kennedy memorial.
- The decision has prompted a wave of artist cancellations and renewed calls from Kennedy family members and congressional historians for the removal of Trump’s name.
The cancellation of the concert marks a rare moment when a cultural institution’s traditional programming is halted by political controversy, highlighting the ongoing tension between the center’s historical legacy and the current administration’s agenda.
