Rhiannon Giddens performs during rehearsal for the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular in Boston in 2018.Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press
Award-winning singer-musician Rhiannon Giddens has become the latest artist to call off an appearance at the Kennedy Center, which has been in upheaval since President Donald Trump forced out the centre’s leadership and was elected chair of the board of trustees.
Trump’s takeover of the centre 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 cancelled 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 theatre, 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 honours ceremony, even in the presence of artists who disagreed with them politically.
