NEW YORK CITY, New York: Jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled a planned Christmas Eve concert at the Kennedy Center after the White House announced that President Donald Trump would be added to the list of invitees.
The concert is a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years.
The building's facade reads The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. According to the White House, the president's handpicked board approved the decision, which scholars have said 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 then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert," Redd told The Associated Press in an email on December 24. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, has been presiding over holiday "Jazz Jams" at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William "Keter" Betts.
The Kennedy Center website lists the show as canceled.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year designating the center as a living memorial to him. Kennedy's niece, Kerry Kennedy, has said she plans to remove Donald Trump's name from the building after he leaves office, while former House historian Ray Smock and others note that any such change would require approval from Congress.
The law also bars the board from placing another person's name on the exterior of the center or turning it into a memorial to anyone else.
Trump has taken an unusually active role in the Kennedy Center, which is named after a prominent Democrat, after largely ignoring it during his first term. He has removed its leadership, reshaped the board, and appointed himself as its head.
Departing from the long-standing tradition of presidents attending events mainly as guests, Trump personally hosted this year's Kennedy Center Honors. These moves are part of his broader effort to push back against what he calls "woke" culture in federal cultural institutions.
Several artists have canceled appearances at the Kennedy Center since Trump returned to office, including Issa Rae and Peter Wolf. Lin-Manuel Miranda also withdrew a planned production of Hamilton.
