NEED TO KNOW
- Kennedy Middle president Richard Grenell is demanding damages from Chuck Redd, the jazz musician who canceled his Christmas Eve Jazz Jam live performance on the venue
- The longtime Jazz Jam host canceled shortly after the positioning was renamed the Trump Kennedy Middle on each its web site and constructing signal
- “That is your official discover that we are going to search $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” Grenell wrote in a letter to Redd
After President Donald Trump hooked up his identify to the Kennedy Middle, jazz musician Chuck Redd backed out of his annual Christmas Eve live performance. Now, the venue’s president is demanding steep monetary compensation.
The performer, 67, pulled out of the yearly “Jazz Jam” vacation present — which he has hosted for nearly 20 years — within the wake of the controversial renaming, introduced lower than every week earlier than the occasion.
On Friday, Dec. 26, Kennedy Middle president Richard Grenell criticized the musician’s determination to cancel “for partisan political causes” and requested $1 million in damages, based on a letter obtained by Fox Information, the Related Press and The New York Occasions. He additionally known as Redd’s cancellation a “political stunt.”
“Your determination to withdraw on the final second — explicitly in response to the Middle’s latest renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save lots of this nationwide treasure — is traditional intolerance and really expensive to a non-profit Arts establishment,” Grenell, 59, mentioned within the letter.
The venue president went on to criticize Redd for an alleged lack of ticket gross sales and to reward Trump, 79, for rescuing the middle “from virtually sure destruction” earlier than formally requesting damages from the longtime Christmas Eve Jazz Jam host.
“Your dismal ticket gross sales and lack of donor assist, mixed together with your last-minute cancellation, has price us significantly,” Grenell wrote. “That is your official discover that we are going to search $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”
“This establishment stays devoted to excellence and accessibility for generations to return, and we won’t yield to the strain techniques being directed at us from political performers on our phases,” Grenell concluded. “True artists carry out for everybody whatever the political affiliation of viewers members.”
Redd couldn’t be reached for remark.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt first introduced on Dec. 18 that the board of the historic venue had “voted unanimously” to rename the constructing “The Trump Kennedy Middle,” or “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Middle for the Performing Arts” in full.
Shortly after taking workplace, Trump purged the appointed members of the middle’s board, putting in his personal appointees. The Trump-friendly board then established Trump as chairman of the humanities group, which was devoted in 1964 as a “dwelling memorial” to assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
The Kennedy Middle was established by an act of Congress, and critics have argued that solely Congress can authorize a proper identify change.
Nonetheless, the middle up to date its emblem on the web site and social media to learn “The Trump Kennedy Middle” virtually instantly, and the next day, Trump’s identify was added to the signage on the constructing’s exterior — prompting Redd’s cancellation.
The drummer and vibraphone participant, who has toured with famed jazz musicians, has hosted the annual vacation concert events since 2006, per AP. He defined his reasoning for the cancellation in an e mail to the outlet on Wednesday, Dec. 24 — the day the present was initially scheduled to happen.
By no means miss a narrative — join ipromiseyoumedia’s free day by day neighborhood to remain up-to-date on the most effective of what ipromiseyoumedia has to supply, from movie star information to forcing human curiosity tales.
“After I noticed the identify change on the Kennedy Middle web site after which hours in a while the constructing, I selected to cancel our live performance,” Redd mentioned, based on AP.
The jazz performer isn’t the one artist who has known as off a scheduled look on the heart since Trump turned extra concerned with the historic venue in his second time period. Based on AP, each Issa Rae and Lin-Manuel Miranda have additionally canceled exhibits this yr.
In an announcement to Fox Information, Roma Daravi, vp of public relations for the Kennedy Middle, mentioned partially, “Any artist canceling their present on the Trump Kennedy Middle over political variations isn’t brave or principled — they’re egocentric, illiberal, and have failed to satisfy the fundamental responsibility of a public artist: to carry out for all folks.”