Jeffrey Brown:
President Trump has referred critically to what he calls woke programming, and said: “We didn’t like what they were showing.”
On his TRUTH Social, he wrote: “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured drag shows specifically targeting our youth. This will stop.”
The center has presented drag events, a tiny percentage of its annual programming. In fact, the Kennedy Center, with constituent organizations, including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera, has regularly presented the world’s leading artists for decades.
Its Millennium Stage offers free performances daily by local, national and international artists. In 2019, it expanded its campus and offerings with the opening of The REACH, a series of performance and rehearsal spaces. But now some prominent artists are staying away.
Immediately following President Trump’s moves, Kennedy Center artistic advisers Renee Fleming and Ben Folds resigned from their positions. TV producer Shonda Rhimes, appointed by President Obama, abruptly left her position as treasurer. Performers, including actress-comedian Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens, canceled upcoming shows.
And the hit production “Hamilton,” which was previously played at the Kennedy Center, announced it would not return as planned in 2026. “Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller posted: “The recent purge flies in the face of everything this national center represents.”
At his recent trip to the center, President Trump responded to the “Hamilton” announcement.
