A jazz concert planned for Christmas Eve at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition more than 20 years old, was canceled after Donald Trump’s name was added to the building.
The show’s director, musician Chuck Redd, told the Associated Press that he canceled the performance after the White House announced last week that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the name of the cultural center.
Since Friday, the building’s facade has displayed the inscription “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
According to the White House, the Kennedy Center board of directors, ‘handpicked’ by the current president, approved the decision, which, according to scholars, violates the law.
Trump had been suggesting for months that he was open to changing the center’s name.
“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and, hours later, in the building, I decided to cancel our concert”Redd told The Associated Press in an email message.
Redd, a drummer and vibraphonist who has toured with musicians from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, and was part of Charlie Byrd’s trio, has been the host of the Christmas “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts.
The Kennedy Center did not respond to the US news agency’s request for comment.
The center’s website lists the show as cancelled.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress approved a law naming the cultural center in the US federal capital after him.
Kennedy’s niece, Kerry Kennedy, has vowed to remove Trump’s name from the building once he leaves office, and former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any change would have to be approved by Congress.
The law passed in Congress explicitly prohibits the board of directors from transforming the center into a memorial to anyone else and from placing another name on the exterior of the building.
Trump, a Republican, has been deeply involved with the center named after an iconic Democrat, after largely ignoring him during his first term.