Kennedy Center renaming prompts a new round of cancellations : NPR

Protesters, including Nadine Siler, of Waldorf, Md., dressed in a pink frog costume, hold signs at a designated protest point in front of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, one day after a Trump-appointed board of trustees voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP/AP

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Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP/AP

The Kennedy Center is ending the year with a new round of artists saying they are canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility, prompting the institution’s president to accuse artists of making their decisions for political reasons.

The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has been performing together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website, saying “the decision was made very quickly” and acknowledging the frustration of those who might have planned to attend.

Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York-based dance group, announced Monday evening on Instagram that they would pull out of a planned April show, saying they “can no longer allow us or ask our audiences into this once great institution.”

The measures come after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve concert last week. They also come amid falling ticket sales for the venue, as well as announcements that viewership for the Dec. 23 broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors — which Trump predicted would skyrocket — was down about 35% from the 2024 broadcast.

The announcements make for a volatile schedule for one of the most important performance venues in the United States and cap a tense year in which Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and named himself president of the institution. That led to a series of rejections from artists, with performer Issa Rae and “Hamilton” producers canceling their planned engagements while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from their advisory roles.

The Cookers did not mention the building’s renaming or the Trump administration, but said that when they return to the stage, they want to make sure “the venue is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating their commitment “to playing music that transcends divisions rather than deepens them.”

The group may not have directly addressed the Kennedy Center situation, but one of its members did. On Saturday, saxophonist Billy Harper said in comments posted to the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “wouldn’t even consider performing at a venue with a name (and being controlled by some kind of board of directors) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I have dedicated my life to creating and advancing.”

According to the White House, Trump’s hand-picked board approved the name change. Harper said the board “along with the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices that I have always opposed. And I still do, now more than ever.”

Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president tapped to run the Kennedy Center after ousting previous management, posted Monday night on

In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Grenell said that “the last-minute cancellations prove that they were still unwilling to perform in front of everyone – even those with whom they disagreed politically,” adding that the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform in front of everyone and who rejected political statements in their art.”

Kennedy Center officials did not immediately say whether the entity would take legal action against the latest round of artists seeking to cancel performances. Following Redd’s cancellation last week, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt.”

Not all artists cancel their concerts. Bluegrass banjoist Randy Barrett, who was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the AP that he was “deeply troubled by the politicization” of the venue and that he respects those who canceled, but he believes that “our tribalized country needs more music and art, not less. It’s one of the few things that can bring us together.”

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year designating the center as his living memorial. The researchers said any change in the building’s name would require congressional approval; the law explicitly prohibits the board of directors from making the center a memorial to anyone and from inscribing another person’s name on the exterior of the building.

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Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Hillel Italy contributed to this report.