I asked perplexity about why the #KennedyCenter has been in the news lately and after five retries, I resigned to asking it about cancelations, specifically. It did finally tell me about the "controversial rename".
So you know, AI self-censors.
Gary Legum comments on Trump's decision to shut down the Kennedy Center:
He’s closing the Center himself for the next two years. No Kennedy Center, no performers wounding his fragile ego by loudly pulling out of performances or moving their operas elsewhere. Genius!"
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-closing-kennedy-center-so-no
The office of the #USattorney in #DC [ #JeaninePirro] has unironically opened a #criminal “investigation” into #JeromePowell, the #FederalReserve chair, over the central bank’s renovation of its Washington HQ & whether Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project…. [cough cough, #ballroom, cough cough, #EastWing, cough cough, #KennedyCenter…cough cough, cough cough…]
#law #economy #independence #autocracy #despotism #dictatorship #tyranny #NewWorldOrder #recession #trumpcession
Trending Bot
boosted
#WashingtonNationalOpera is moving out of the #KennedyCenter
The Washington National #Opera announced Friday that it plans to leave the John F. Kennedy Center for the #PerformingArts, its longtime home, a stunning move that follows…ongoing upheaval at the center since #Trump’s takeover & illegal renaming of the Center.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/01/09/washington-national-opera-leaves-kennedy-center/
Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/arts/music/washington-national-opera-kennedy-center.html
#HackerNews #WashingtonNationalOpera #KennedyCenter #ArtsNews #OperaCommunity #MusicIndustry
#WashingtonNationalOpera is moving out of the #KennedyCenter
The Washington National #Opera announced Friday that it plans to leave the John F. Kennedy Center for the #PerformingArts, its longtime home, a stunning move that follows…ongoing upheaval at the center since #Trump’s takeover & illegal renaming of the Center.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/01/09/washington-national-opera-leaves-kennedy-center/
"I've been saying since 2017 or so that schadenfreude is hope for all living things, by which I mean that it's less that we (well some of us) wish them harm than that we wish their harm to stop. The harm they're attempting to visit on everyone and everything else will bite back – you can't wreck the environment, public health, the economy, and sabotage a functioning government without consequences. We are those consequences."
"What has happened at the Kennedy Center is that artists have exercised their power to not cooperate. Governors and mayors and the state and city workers under them have likewise declined to cooperate in 2025. So have all sorts of people in all sorts of places and situations. As Patti Smith famously sang, 'People Have the Power.' Not always, not everywhere, but sometimes, when we take it."
#democracy #authoritarianism #Trump #KennedyCenter #solidarity #resistance
/5
"Trump now largely controls the building – but he doesn't own the arts or the artists or the audience. ...
I opened one of my first newsletters after launching Meditations in an Emergency February 2nd with these words: 'I can sum up the Trump/Musk/Vance theory of power in five words: "We have power; you don't."' Except we do, and we have used it ferociously, creatively, devotedly, bravely this year."
#democracy #authoritarianism #Trump #KennedyCenter #solidarity #resistance
/4
Always hopeful, Rebecca Solnit finds hope in the demonstrated ability of many Americans in the last year to band together and resist in manifold and creative ways — e.g., what's happening with the Kennedy Center:
"Trump perceived the center as in essence an object he could grab, and in some ways it was – and in other ways it wasn't."
#democracy #authoritarianism #Trump #KennedyCenter #solidarity #resistance
/3
Tim Chambers
boosted
The vote by the #KennedyCenter board to add #Trump’s name to the institution marked the most overt effort to date by the president & his allies to remold the storied #PerformingArts center in his image.
In the days since his name was added to the building, several lawmakers have vowed to fight the change.
#SevenMountainMandate #law #history #landmark #preservation #memorial #JFK
hypebot
boosted
#KennedyCenter changed board rules months before vote to add #Trump name
The new rules say only trustees appointed by the president can vote, barring other members, including Democrats who hold seats, from decisions. The center said the change reflects “longstanding precedent” [or, you know, the opposite of that].
It still doesn’t matter though since it is an actual #LAW that only #Congress can change the name.
#history #landmark #preservation #memorial #JFK
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/12/31/kennedy-center-board-trustees-bylaws/
The vote by the #KennedyCenter board to add #Trump’s name to the institution marked the most overt effort to date by the president & his allies to remold the storied #PerformingArts center in his image.
In the days since his name was added to the building, several lawmakers have vowed to fight the change.
#SevenMountainMandate #law #history #landmark #preservation #memorial #JFK
…Other changes from the May revision state that the general trustees “serve at the pleasure of the President.” (Previously, that language appeared in the bylaws & the federal statute only in reference to the Advisory Cmte on the Arts, a separate body that makes recommendations to the board.)
They also added language about the ability of officers to make certain appointments, including stating that the chair may appoint the center’s president to act as chief exec.
Whitehouse said the statute “makes no distinction between ex officio & presidentially appointed Trustees when it comes to members’ rights & responsibilities on the board, including voting,” & he accused the #Trump appointed board of attempting to “illegally change the bylaws to silence dissent.”
Beatty…sued the #KennedyCenter board of trustees Dec 22 to stop it from adding Trump’s name to the institution….Her lawsuit argues the center’s statute makes her a “a full voting member.”
…Sen. #SheldonWhitehouse (D-Rhode Island) told The Post that he became an ex officio member this year after he became the lead #Democrat on the #Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works — another ex officio seat designated by #Congress — but was not ever invited to board meetings until his committee began investigating the #KennedyCenter last month.
#Trump #law #history #landmark #preservation #memorial #JFK #SevenMountainMandate
The center’s original bylaws didn’t distinguish voting powers, either. But its most recent tax filings list 59 “voting members” of its governing body — a total that includes both general & ex officio members.
[The #KennedyCenter currently lists 34 presidentially appointed board members, including #Trump himself as chair, & 23 ex officio seats. The center’s president, Richard Grenell, is also an officer of the board.]
#law #history #landmark #preservation #memorial #JFK #SevenMountainMandate
The #law identifies them as part of the board of trustees, which it directs to maintain & administer the facility as a living #memorial. But it does NOT distinguish between voting & nonvoting members, which has been a point of ambiguity in the days following the vote to rename the #KennedyCenter.
At least one ex officio member, Rep Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), was muted when she attempted to speak out during the Dec 18 vote.
#Trump #history #landmark #preservation #JFK #SevenMountainMandate
#KennedyCenter changed board rules months before vote to add #Trump name
The new rules say only trustees appointed by the president can vote, barring other members, including Democrats who hold seats, from decisions. The center said the change reflects “longstanding precedent” [or, you know, the opposite of that].
It still doesn’t matter though since it is an actual #LAW that only #Congress can change the name.
#history #landmark #preservation #memorial #JFK
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/12/31/kennedy-center-board-trustees-bylaws/
bhaugen
boosted
"After all the years I spent working with some of the greatest heroes of the anti-racism fight like Max Roach and Randy Weston and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stanley Cowell, I know they would be turning in their graves to see me stand on a stage under such circumstances and betray all we fought for, and sacrificed for.”