Last night, thousands turned up to protest at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in DC. As the moon rose over the Capitol, people surrounded the Kennedy Center, arm in arm and hand in hand shouting, “Hands off!” The symbolic gesture was meant to serve as a battle cry against Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to seize the landmark cultural institution, and rebrand someone else’s memorial center as his own.
The protest was organized by Hands Off the Arts, a collective of artists and workers hoping to preserve the Kennedy Center and keep it free of government meddling. A friend working with the HOtA called it a “ragtag group of Hill/union staffers, drag queens, former Kennedy Center employees and lovers of performance art.”
They’re the ones who sounded the rallying cry to defend the Kennedy Center.
“They’re fun as all hell,” my friend said.
The MC for the evening was Tara Hoot, a DC area drag queen. It featured performances by the Rapid Response Choir, a collective of singers who’ve become a staple at DC area protests; the DC Activist Street Band; the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC; as well as a speech from Linda Carter, the original Wonder Woman.
It’s difficult to describe just how many people showed up. People weren’t just spilling out across the expansive grounds of the Kennedy Center. They milled about on the south side of the Watergate, and mobbed a small Mediterranean cafe. There were people soaking in the fading sunlight along the Potomac River from the REACH Pavillion in the shadow of the bronze JFK statue.
There were elderly folks shuffling along with walkers, wheelchairs and big smiles. Kids with pink, and green, and blue hair pumped their fists in the air next to shaking geriatrics. There were LBGTQ folks, punks, and straight-laced dorks in khakis, and even members of the Capitol Hill suit and tie brigade. Pets were excitedly sniffing and licking the hands and faces of anyone who got too close.
Local artist Bud Wilkinson had a black board with a sketch of the Kennedy Center covered in graffiti that read, “Donald Trump.” The project, he explained, was for people to take a large rubber eraser to Trump’s name, and replace it with a heart.
“I made it hard to erase on purpose,” Wilkinson said as a woman struggled to rub the name out. “It’s not going to be easy to get rid of him.”
It’s impossible to explain just how much the Kennedy Center means to people in the area. Most kids in public elementary schools get a field trip to the Kennedy Center with their music class. For some, it’s their first exposure to classical art and music. Many artists see a performance at the Kennedy Center as prestigious because it’s a public institution that highlights some of the most culturally significant art of Americans, and the world. And, until Trump took it over, the Kennedy Center Honors award was not just another gala, it was considered a crowning achievement to a lifetime of work in the arts.
But now the Kennedy Center’s silence is deafening.
Organizers had been cooking up the rally for some time, but Trump threatened to raze the building earlier this week, and the HOtA crew decided to act. Multiple people at the rally talked about a recently published photo showing Trump on his personal Air Force One looking at a large printout that appeared to read, “Kennedy Center Demolished.”
Trump has repeatedly made sketchy and unverified claims that the Kennedy Center is suffering financially and in disrepair. But the Kennedy Center recently completed a major series of renovations prior to Trump’s return to office. In 2019, a multi-year expansion of the Kennedy Center was completed thanks to the funding of private donors and congress. Artists only canceled concerts at the Kennedy Center after Trump started fucking around with it, prompting regular donors to find something better to do with their money.
In April, over two dozen theater and stage workers were laid off in violation of their union contracts and federal labor laws. On Tuesday, the Trump-installed Board announced the main building would close for two years for extensive renovations, though they’ve been making the same announcement for months, ever since artists began canceling shows. On Friday, just hours before the protest, the Kennedy Center laid off more than a dozen senior employees, according to the Washington Post.
Courts have ruled that Trump can’t carve his name into or demolish the Kennedy Center for now, but there’s still a large tarp covering the shuttered entrance, obscuring the name of the slain president whose legacy the center honors.
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Mark Carney: “I would now like to inform you that the teleprompter has ceased to function. Unlike a certain world leader, I do not view this as a conspiracy.”
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