Rhiannon Giddens performs at ‘A New York Night With Rhiannon Giddens’ at Nationwide Sawdust on August 17, 2023, in New York Metropolis.
Rob Kim/Getty Photos for The Recording Academy
cover caption
toggle caption
Rob Kim/Getty Photos for The Recording Academy
Folks musician Rhiannon Giddens introduced on social media that she has moved her Could 11 live performance – initially scheduled for the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts – to a distinct venue in Washington, D.C.
Giddens mentioned within the Threads put up: “The Kennedy Heart present was booked lengthy earlier than the present administration determined to take over this beforehand non-political establishment, however I can’t in good conscience play at The Kennedy with the current programming modifications compelled on the establishment by this new board.”
The present will now happen on the identical date at The Anthem, one other venue in D.C., the musician mentioned.
When requested for a response, a Kennedy Heart spokesperson mentioned that the Heart itself has not modified any programming since President Trump put in movement various management modifications earlier this month.
On Feb. 7, Trump introduced on Fact Social that he can be terminating “a number of people from the Board of Trustees, together with the Chairman,” referring to longtime Kennedy Heart chair and main donor David Rubenstein. Kennedy Heart president Deborah Rutter was additionally ousted.
The brand new board is made up solely of Trump appointees and Trump himself is now chair, an unprecedented transfer. Historically, the performing arts middle, a “residing memorial” to President John F. Kennedy, has had a bipartisan board.
Giddens, a MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winner, joins a rising record of artists who’ve canceled upcoming exhibits on the Kennedy Heart in response to the management modifications.
They embody the Brooklyn-based, Puerto Rican band Balún, which was scheduled to carry out Feb. 27. “Current occasions made it clear that the area now not aligns with our values. Our security, integrity, and dedication to justice come first,” the band introduced on Instagram over the weekend.
YouTube
Thriller author Louise Penny was scheduled to launch her new e-book The Black Wolf on the Kennedy Heart, “however within the wake of Trump taking up, I’ve pulled out,” she wrote on Fb. “It was, in fact, going to be a profession spotlight. However there are issues much more vital than that.”
In her announcement, Giddens wrote that she does not “choose anybody for selecting to go on with their exhibits; it is a extremely troublesome state of affairs for artists proper now and everybody has to do what makes essentially the most sense for them within the second.”
Story edited by Jennifer Vanasco
