MLK Day concert held annually at the Kennedy Center for 23 years is relocating; NPR, January 14, 2026

 Elizabeth Blair, NPR ; MLK Day concert held annually at the Kennedy Center for 23 years is relocating

"Let Freedom Ring, an annual concert in Washington, D.C., celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr., has been a signature event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for more than 20 years. Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan have performed, backed by a choir made up of singers from D.C.-area churches and from Georgetown University, which produces the event.

But this year's event, headlined by actor and rapper Common, will not be held at the Kennedy Center...

Composer Nolan Williams Jr., Let Freedom Ring's music producer since 2003, also says he has no regrets that the event is moving.

"You celebrate the time that was and the impact that has been and can never be erased. And then you move forward to the next thing," said Williams.

This year, Williams wrote a piece for the event called "Just Like Selma," inspired by one of King's most famous quotes: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Williams says sometimes the quote is "interpreted in a passive way."

"The arc doesn't just happen to move. We have to be agents of change. We have to be active arc movers, arc benders," said Williams. "And so throughout the song, you hear these action words like 'protest,' 'resist,' 'endure,' 'agitate,' 'fight hate.' And those are all the action words that remind us of the responsibility that we have to be arc benders."

Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz is latest star to cancel Kennedy Center event over outrage at Trump takeover; Entertainment Weekly, January 2, 2025

Joey Nofli, Entertainment Weekly; Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz is latest star to cancel Kennedy Center event over outrage at Trump takeover

"Another artist has canceled a Kennedy Center appearance over outrage at President Donald Trump's takeover of the venue, with Wickedcomposer Stephen Schwartz backing out of a planned opera event.

As Trump continues to overhaul the Kennedy Center — a performing arts space and legally protected memorial constructed in honor of President John F. Kennedy — in his own name, Schwartz said Thursday in an email to Newsday that he'll no longer host the Washington National Opera Gala on May 16.

Schwartz told the outlet that the center "no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be," with his statement coming after Trump's team erected text bearing his name next to Kennedy's on the exterior of the Washington, D.C., structure."

Kennedy Center changed board rules months before vote to add Trump’s name; The Washington Post, December 31, 2025

Janay Kingsberry

 and 

Kelsey Ables

, The Washington Post; Kennedy Center changed board rules months before vote to add Trump’s name

"The Kennedy Center adopted bylaws earlier this year that limited voting to presidentially appointed trustees, a move that preceded a unanimous decision this month by board members installed by President Donald Trump to add his name to the center."

[Kip Currier: for emphasis again:

The Kennedy Center adopted bylaws earlier this year that limited voting to presidentially appointed trustees, a move that preceded a unanimous decision this month by board members installed by President Donald Trump to add his name to the center. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/12/31/kennedy-center-board-trustees-bylaws/

This underscores the comfort level with rigging elections at any cost. For Trump 2.0, process does not matter; only results. Whomever or whatever is damaged or dismantled in such Hobbesian stratagems is, sadly, immaterial.

John Fabian Witt's 12/24/25 New York Times piece The Idea That Once Held America Together Died in 2025 talks about the importance of process and "basic procedural fairness" to functioning, responsive democracies. As Witt writes:

At the apex of their midcentury authority, the processes of American government rested on a sense of shared purpose and mutual trust. Regaining some of that ephemeral collective sensibility will be America’s struggle in 2026 and the years to come. A persistent, if battered, attachment to the value of basic procedural fairness suggests that there may be some common ground yet.]

New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled; The New York Times, December 29, 2025

Adam Nagourney and Neil Vigdor, The New York Times ; New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled

[Kip Currier: The principles of integrity and character are unsurprisingly alien to Richard Grenell. Artists are likely canceling Kennedy Center engagements because they don't want to be associated with an administration that has attacked free expression and the diversity of human experience, financially diminished the arts, as well as science, and that has violated federal law by adding Donald Trump's name to an arts organization memorializing our slain 35th President, John F. Kennedy Jr.

Standing up for values one believes in -- values that are bigger than oneself -- is an example of moral courage, not "derangement".]

[Excerpt]

"A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump...

The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice."...

Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, also said on Monday that it was canceling two performances in April that had been intended to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Mr. Varone, the head of the company, said it would lose $40,000 by pulling out.

“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” he said in an email.

Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s chairman, said in a statement on Monday night that the artists canceling shows were “far-left political activists” and that they had been booked by previous leadership. “Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” he said."

South Park writer bought Trump-Kennedy Center domain names months ago to troll president; Entertainment Weekly, December 26, 2025

 Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly; South Park writer bought Trump-Kennedy Center domain names months ago to troll president

"It looks like the writers of South Park are following in The Simpsons' footsteps when it comes to predicting future events.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, writer Toby Morton revealed that not only did he predict that Donald Trump would decide to add his name to the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he prepared for it. In August, the writer, who regularly buys political domains and turns them into satirical websites as a form of activism, bought the rights to both trumpkennedycenter.org and trumpkennedycenter.com.

"As soon as Trump began gutting the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, I thought, 'Yep, that name's going on the building,'" Morton, a comedy writer who has worked on series such as South Park and Mad TV, told the publication. "The rest followed on schedule."...

"The Kennedy Center has always been a cultural institution meant to outlast any one administration or personality," he asserted. "It's meant to honor culture, not ego. Once it was treated like personal branding, satire became unavoidable."...

The renaming immediately drew the ire of the political family, with the likes of Robert F. Kennedy's grandson Joe Kennedy III and John F. Kennedy's niece Maria Shriver and grandson Jack Schlossberg all speaking out.

Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty also contested Leavitt’s version of events in her own social media post. "For the record. This was not unanimous," she wrote. "I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move. Also for the record, this was not on the agenda. This was not consensus. This is censorship.""

Kennedy Center Honors hosted by Trump tanks in ratings with 35% fewer viewers than last year: report; The Independent, December 25, 2025

Rhian Lubin, The Independent; Kennedy Center Honors hosted by Trump tanks in ratings with 35% fewer viewers than last year: report 

"President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center Honors show saw ratings for the annual event tank with 35 percent fewer viewers than last year, according to a report.

Trump became the first president to host the awards that aired Tuesday night after he boasted that the venue’s board and “just about everybody else in America” had requested he take center stage.

But according to preliminary Nielsen data, the televised awards show on CBS “drew its smallest ever audience on December 23, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers,” Programming Insider reports. “To put that in perspective: the 2024 broadcast averaged 4.1 million,” the media ratings website noted."

Artist to Pull Kennedy Center Show Over Trump Rename; The Daily Beast, December 21, 2025

 Laura Esposito , The Daily Beast ; Artist to Pull Kennedy Center Show Over Trump Rename

"The Kennedy Center is already losing performers after Donald Trump slapped his name on the storied arts institution.

Kristy Lee, a folk singer scheduled to perform at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 14, is in talks to cancel her appearance, her spokesperson told NOTUS, as other artists also move to sever ties with the venue...

“Kennedy Center is supposed to be a memorial, focusing on being nonpartisan. A place where people, it doesn’t matter what party they believe in, should be performing and experiencing the arts together regardless of what their party is. And it has not become that.”"

JFK’s Infuriated Niece Vows to Take Kennedy Center Renaming Into Own Hands; The Daily Beast, December 20, 2025

Katie Francis , The Daily Beast; JFK’s Infuriated Niece Vows to Take Kennedy Center Renaming Into Own Hands

"Kerry Kennedy has announced a very DIY solution to the addition of Trump’s name to her uncle’s memorial center...

Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I’m going to need help holding the ladder. Are you in? Applying for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!"

Kennedy Family Rails Against Trump’s ‘Obsessive’ Center Renaming; The Daily Beast, December 18, 2025

William Vaillancourt , The Daily Beast ; Kennedy Family Rails Against Trump’s ‘Obsessive’ Center Renaming

"Several members of the Kennedy family have objected to Donald Trump slapping his name on the historic arts center that memorializes the 35th president.

Despite Congress being the authority on the name of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump on Thursday declared that the venue would be known as the “Trump-Kennedy Center” following a vote from his hand-picked board members. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt bizarrely even offered “congratulations” to Kennedy when announcing the news.

But JFK’s nieces, grandson, and grandnephew naturally don’t approve of Trump, 79, inserting himself into the late president’s legacy.

Maria Shriver, Kennedy’s niece through Eunice Kennedy Shriver, called Trump’s habit of naming things after himself an “obsession.”

“It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not,” Shriver, 70, wrote on X, adding that he could very well try to do the same with the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C...

“This is not dignified. This is not funny. This is way beneath the stature of the job. It’s downright weird. It’s obsessive in a weird way,” continued Shriver, who earlier said she was “enraged” by the news. “Just when you think someone can’t stoop any lower, down they go…”

Meanwhile, Kerry Kennedy, JFK’s niece through Robert F. Kennedy, criticized Trump for “repressing free expression, targeting artists, journalists, and comedians, and erasing the history of Americans whose contributions made our nation better and more just.”"

Librarian of Congress firing is latest move in upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions; NPR, May 9, 2025

Andrew Limbong , NPR; Librarian of Congress firing is latest move in upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions

"By firing the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday night, President Trump continued his remaking of American cultural institutions."

President Trump's Self-Described "Takeover" of the Center is an Attack on Creative Freedom; PEN America, February 8, 2025

PEN America; President Trump's Self-Described "Takeover" of the Center is an Attack on Creative Freedom

"In response to President Trump saying he is firing the Kennedy Center trustees and naming himself chair, Hadar Harris, PEN America’s Washington managing director, made the following comment:

“President Trump’s self-described “takeover” of the Kennedy Center is another salvo in his demonstrated attack on free expression. He is taking the unprecedented move of clearing out board members “who do not share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” Presidents should not be dictating a singular view of culture. The cultural sector must remain free from political control; that is fundamental to protecting creative freedom in a democracy.”

About PEN America

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org."