Following a tumultuous few months at the hands of newly-installed board chair President Donald Trump, the Kennedy Center has canceled several events that were scheduled for Pride Month in June.
Several artists and producers for Tapestry of Pride, which was scheduled to be held at the center from June 5 to 8, told the Associated Press that their events had been quietly canceled or relocated to other venues. In response, DC’s Capital Pride Alliance has disassociated itself from the center.
Deputy director of the alliance June Crenshaw told the AP, “We are a resilient community, and we have found other avenues to celebrate. We are finding another path to the celebration… but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing.”
Tapestry of Pride, organized to celebrate the World Pride festival that is taking place in Washington D.C. this summer, is still visible on the Kennedy Center’s website along with a link to the World Pride DC website.
The news comes after months of Trump-instituted chaos at the center, including the president firing several board members and installing himself as chair in order to remake the center in his own image, hoping to stage “non-woke” musicals like Cats, honor more conservative stars, and even renovate the building.
Some artists responded to Trump’s machinations by canceling their own events at the center, including musician Rhiannon Giddens, who said in a statement, “I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy Center with the change in programming direction forced on the institution by this new board.”
Michael Roest, founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra that was scheduled to perform at the center on June 5, told the AP that he was in the final stages of planning the event when Trump staged his takeover, at which point the center immediately became nonresponsive before sending a one-sentence email on February 12 that read: “We are no longer able to advance your contract at this time.”
Despite the setback, the orchestra has managed to move their performance to a theater in nearby Bethesda, Maryland, while Crenshaw shared that other events, including a drag story time and a display of parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, would be moved to the World Pride welcome center in Chinatown.
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