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Trump's takeover of the center is part of his broad campaign
against “woke” culture.
“I have decided to cancel my show at The Kennedy Center on May
11, 2025 and move it to The Anthem,” she wrote on social media,
referring to a separate Washington, D.C. venue. “The Kennedy
Center show was booked long before the current administration
decided to take over this previously bipartisan institution.”
Giddens is an eclectic roots music performer known for
co-founding the Carolina Chocolate Drops and for such
collaborations with Francesco Turrisi as the Grammy winning
“They're Calling Me Home.” In 2022, she helped write the
Pulitzer Prize winning opera “Omar.” She is also a recipient of
a MacArthur “Genius” grant.
Actor Issa Rae, author Louise Penny and the rock band Low Cut
Connie also have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center events.
Singer-songwriter Victoria Clark went ahead with her Feb. 15
show, but on stage wore a T-shirt reading “ANTI TRUMP AF.”
Supported by government money and private donations and
attracting millions of visitors each year, the Kennedy Center is
a 100-foot high complex featuring a concert hall, opera house
and theater, along with a lecture hall, meeting spaces and a
“Millennium Stage” that has been the site for free shows.
Until Trump in his first term, presidents have routinely
attended the honors ceremony, even in the presence of artists
who disagreed with them politically.
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