Mastodawn

New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled [🎁 nytimes.com Gift article]

https://lemmy.world/post/40892354

New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled [🎁 nytimes.com Gift article] - Lemmy.World

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 [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/us/politics/kennedy-center-name.html]. The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/arts/music/billy-hart-jazz-drummer-just.html] as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/us/kennedy-center-christmas-eve-concert-trump.html] hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled. The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday [https://www.thecookersmusic.com/] 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.” But the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the center’s name change had “evidently” played a role. He acknowledged that the group was concerned about possible reprisals.

gravitas_deficiency Dec 30

lol.

Lmao, even.

neon_nova Dec 30

People say the name was changed illegally. I’m out of the loop on this, why is it illegal for their name to be changed?

The Kennedy Center was created with that name by an act of Congress: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/76i

Much like the Department of Defense, it must be renamed by Congress.

20 U.S. Code § 76i - John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

LII / Legal Information Institute

A_norny_mousse Dec 30

I have to say, even if they’d changed it legally, it would not diminish my disgust one bit. To name something so public, that you had no part in creating, after yourself is the ultimate … tastelessness, fuck you to the plebs, loser move, etc.

It’s also aggravating because you only name a memorial after dead people.

A_norny_mousse Jan 1

That was included in my statement: you can only name something after yourself while you’re still alive. According to currently accepted hard facts, at least.

But let the pejoratives come, my brain blanked when I got to that.

kescusay Dec 30

The name is actually set in a law, hence this lawsuit: washingtonlitigationgroup.org/…/new-lawsuit-chall…

New Lawsuit Challenges Illegal Renaming of the Kennedy Center | Washington Litigation Group

December 22, 2025 – Congresswoman Joyce Beatty today sued President Trump and others to stop the unlawful renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the Congresswoman in her capacity as an ex officio trustee of the Kennedy Center by the Washington Litigation Group and …

Washington Litigation Group

Among other reasons, board members who would’ve dissented were forcibly muted in the videoconference meeting during the “unanimous” vote.

A_norny_mousse Dec 30

Wait what? That is old Soviet Union crap. Can I get more details on this? Not in Congress I presume?

AngryCommieKender Dec 30

npr.org/…/democratic-lawmaker-files-lawsuit-chall…

A_norny_mousse Dec 30

Muted and ignored, then blamed when they dare to protest. Classic DARVO. I hope every lawsuit filed against this admin gets the time it deserves and no easy settlement.

floofloof Dec 30

So much winning.

It wasn’t renamed. The office of president doesn’t have the power.

Fuck all of this collaborationist media gaslighting horseshit.

MojoMcJojo Dec 31

Oh. Then why are they saying it was?

ccunning Dec 31

They didn’t change the name legally. They just changed the name on the building and what everyone in the executive branch and on the board calls it.

MojoMcJojo Jan 1

So, what’s the distinction? They changed the name, but not through the formal process of signing documents?

I’m having trouble understanding what steps they need to take before I can rightfully be offended, and I don’t know enough about how something like a building or institution is legally or illegally named.

I think that if there is a big sign on a building telling everyone what it’s called, that is what people will call it. I also think it’s safe to assume that not every single Tom, Dick, and Harry in America will have taken the time to be informed of the legal name of a building before using the name stapled to the God damn wall of said fucking building!

If only someone had the balls to write a strongly worded letter to those people and finally put an end to all of these illegal activities.

So, what’s the distinction? They changed the name, but not through the formal process of signing documents?

It was named by Congress and can only be renamed by Congress. Trump signed an EO but EOs only control employees of the Executive Branch.

I’m having trouble understanding what steps they need to take before I can rightfully be offended, and I don’t know enough about how something like a building or institution is legally or illegally named.

The EO thing is whatever. He can do whatever he wants there and no one really has any control over it. For me the line is when he physically had his name put on the building. He hired someone (with whose money?) and defaced a building that wasn’t his. Basically no different than if he put “The Trump MojoMcJojo House” on your house without your permission.

MojoMcJojo Jan 3

Thank you for clarifying some of that for me. I didn’t know that the EO applies only to the executive branch employees.

It sickens me that he acts like a king, and so many are eager to serve him like one, while the rest just shrug or huff and watch it happen. I picture them (career politicians and public servants) shaking their fist at the air “ooo you Donald Trump, you make me so mad” and then going back to work getting out of his way.