A VETERAN jazz ensemble has cancelled its New Year’s Eve performances at the Kennedy Center, becoming the latest artists to pull out of the storied Washington venue following its controversial renaming to include US President Donald Trump.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Cookers, a long-established jazz septet, announced on Monday that it would not proceed with two performances previously scheduled at the center.
“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the group said in a statement.
The Kennedy Center had promoted the concerts as featuring an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.”
The decision adds to a series of cancellations that have followed the board’s vote earlier this month to rename the venue the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly referred to as the Trump Kennedy Center. The move came after Trump, in his second term, filled the institution’s board with political allies as part of a broader overhaul.
Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally whom the president appointed as the Kennedy Center’s president, dismissed the withdrawals as politically motivated. He said on Monday that such boycotts are a “form of derangement syndrome” and claimed the cancellations involved artists booked under the center’s previous leadership. Grenell has previously described the withdrawals as a “political stunt.”
The Cookers’ announcement follows the cancellation of a Christmas Eve jazz concert last week. The host of that show, musician Chuck Redd, attributed the decision directly to the name change. The New York Times has also reported that Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York-based dance company, has withdrawn from two performances scheduled for April.
The renaming has sparked sharp political and cultural criticism. Democratic lawmakers have described the board’s decision as illegal, while members of John F. Kennedy’s family have denounced the move as diminishing the legacy of the assassinated former president.
Trump has shown a strong desire to leave a personal imprint on Washington during his second term, including placing his name on prominent buildings. Critics argue that he has compromised key institutions by installing loyalists and using funding threats as leverage. Trump, however, has defended his actions as necessary to counter what he describes as entrenched liberal bias within US cultural and civic institutions.
As artist withdrawals mount, the controversy surrounding the Kennedy Center’s new identity continues to test the relationship between politics and the arts in the US capital. - December 31, 2025
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