The Kennedy Center has cancelled a week's worth of event celebrating the LGBTQ+ People at the World Pride Festival in Washington, DC, with the change in focus and the Trump administration firing the center's leadership.
Several artists and producers involved in the centre's tapestry on the centre's Pride Schedule said their events were quietly cancelled or forwarded to other venues. The Pride tapestry was planned from June 5th to 8th before cancellation.
Washington's Capital Privacy Alliance has separated itself from the Kennedy Center in response to a cancelled event.
“We are a resilient community and we have found other ways to celebrate,” June Crenshaw, deputy director of the alliance, told the Associated Press. “We're finding another path to celebration…but the fact that we have to manipulate this way is a shame.”
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The Kennedy Center has cancelled a week's worth of event celebrating the LGBTQ+ People at the World Pride Festival in Washington, DC (Getty Images)
The Kennedy Center website still has a section of the Pride tapestry with a general description and links to the World Pride Site. No other information is provided on the website.
The cancellation comes in the wake of a major change at the Kennedy Center. This was led by President Donald Trump in early February to fire the president and chairman. Trump replaced most boards with loyalists, and he later elected the agency's new chairman.
World Pride events are held every two years, with this year's events running from May 17th to June 8th, with performances and celebrations planned in capitals across the country. However, comments on the Trump administration's policies aimed at transgender people and the Kennedy Center's drug performance raised concerns about what kind of receptionists would receive.
“I know that DC as a community is very excited to host world pride, but I know that the community is a little different to government,” said Michael Roest, founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra, which performed on June 5 at the Kennedy Center a few days after Trump took control of the facility.
Roest told The Associated Press that he is in the final stages of planning performance at the center. He was waiting for a final contract when Trump revealed on February 7th that leadership had changed and plans to modify the institution's programming had changed.
He said the center then stopped responding.
Several artists and producers involved in the centre's tapestry on the centre's Pride Schedule said their events were quietly cancelled or forwarded to other venues. (AP)
On February 12, Roest said he received a one-sentence email from a Kennedy Center staff member saying that he “cannot proceed with the contract at this time.”
“They came out to the hosts from something very enthusiastic,” he told The Associated Press. “We've never heard a word from anyone at Kennedy Center since then, but that's not going to stop us.”
After the cancellation, Loest said the international Pride Orchestra performance could be moved to the Strathmore Theatre in Bethesda, near Bethesda, Maryland.
Roest said that there was no explanation for why performance was cancelled during the planning stage. He said his orchestra will no longer consider performing at the Kennedy Center, and that most odd artists will probably make the same choice.
“We'd need to have a very, very formal statement from the administration from that committee to consider that,” he said. “If not, it's a hostile performance space.”
Crenshaw said other events will be moved to Chinatown's World Pride Welcome Centre, including Drug Story Time and some displays of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
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The cancellation comes in the wake of a major change at the Kennedy Center. (Getty Images)
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Veteran arts and culture journalist and event planner Monica Alford said that she was scheduled to host the event on June 8th as part of the Pride tapestry, but she experienced the sudden end of communication within days of Trump's acquisition of Kennedy Center.
Alford has a long history with the Kennedy Center and last year held his first drug brunch on the rooftop. She said she saw her as her “home base” and “a safe space for the queer community.” She also said she was disappointed to lose her partnership with the Kennedy Center.
“We put our community at a disadvantage. We're not just the queer community, but the community as a whole,” she told The Associated Press.
She said she still confirmed details of her event, which she said “intention is family friendly, just like the drug brunch is family-friendly, classy and refined.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
