Culture reporter
Getty ImagesUS actress, writer and producer Issa Rae has cancelled her forthcoming appearance at Washington’s Kennedy Center over “an infringement of values”, after Donald Trump named himself the venue’s chairman.
The US president also fired its board of trustees within weeks of being re-elected, and Rae, the creator and star of HBO’s Insecure, said all tickets from her sold-out An Evening With show would be refunded.
She added that the “infringement” was on a venue which had “faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums”.
Rae made the announcement about the event, which had been due to take place on 16 March, on her Instagram story.
Getty ImagesThe John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to give the venue its full name, has a mission statement to present classical and contemporary music, opera, drama, dance, and other performing arts from the US and other countries.
It also aims to deliver “powerful arts education opportunities nationwide, and embody the ideals of President Kennedy”.
When the president was asked about his takeover, he said: “We took over the Kennedy Center. We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things.
“I’m going to be chairman of it, and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke,” Time Magazine reported him as saying.
Rae is not the first to distance herself from the Kennedy Center after Trump’s takeover.
Shonda Rhimes, the executive producer of Bridgerton, also resigned earlier this week as the centre’s treasurer.
Rhimes, who also founded the production company Shondaland and created Grey’s Anatomy, posted a quote on Instagram: “‘If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.’ – John F Kennedy.”
‘It is a heartbreak’
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds also stepped down from his work with the National Symphony Orchestra, posting online: “Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic adviser to the NSO. Not for me.”
Opera singer and actress Renée Fleming also left her post as an artistic adviser, saying she was leaving “out of respect” to her colleagues.
On Thursday, Deadline reported that the centre had “cancelled its tour of Finn, an acclaimed Kennedy Center-produced children’s musical” about a young shark who “wants to let out his inner fish.”
The show’s creators Chris Nee, Michael Kooman, and Christopher Dimond posted online: “While not a surprise given the events of the last week, it is a heartbreak. But we will not be silenced.
“And we will not abandon the kids we wrote this show for. They are already under attack from every side. We didn’t ask for this joy bomb of a show to be a part of the resistance, but here we are.”