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Lin-Manuel Miranda, Issa Rae, Bela Fleck are among the numerous
artists who have withdrawn in protest of President Donald
Trump's ousting of the leadership at the center and at the
announcement last month by his hand-picked board that the
Kennedy Center had been renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, a
change scholars say can only be implemented by Congress. Trump
has placed the Kennedy Center, a Washington institution that for
decades enjoyed bipartisan support, at the heart of his battle
against what he calls “woke” culture.
Neither of the most recent announcements directly criticized
Trump.
The Seattle Children's Theatre had been scheduled to oversee
“Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story” for a two-week run in April.
The theater announced this week on Instagram that it had made
the “difficult decision” to cancel after “deep listening and
extensive dialogue with the artists, community partners, and the
Bruce Lee family and foundation.”
The Instagram post included a statement from managing director
Kevin Malgesini, who wrote that the “landscape in which the
production was originally created has changed to an extent” that
going forward as planned was no longer possible.
Vocal Arts DC, which has held concerts for years at the Kennedy
Center, issued an Instagram statement this week that cited
“lower ticket sales, frequent refund requests, and a decline of
donations” in making the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel
upcoming appearances scheduled for February, March and May.
Featured performers were to have included the renowned tenor
Benjamin Bernheim and pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson.
In another apparent cancellation, the center's schedule no
longer lists an April tribute concert to the late John Coltrane,
who would have turned 100 this year. Representatives for two of
the billed musicians did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
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