Last February, the Kennedy Center’s newly installed trustees elected Trump their chairman and named his ally Richard Grenell as the center’s leader. Over the months that followed, a slew of artists pulled out of scheduled performances and ticket sales plunged. In December, the board voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” prompting a fresh wave of cancellations, with many artists citing the politicization of an institution once considered nonpartisan. This month, Washington National Opera said it would cut ties with the center, and Philip Glass pulled out of plans to debut a new symphony there. In mid-January, the center said it had hired entertainment veteran Kevin Couch as its new senior vice president of artistic programming; less than two weeks later Couch resigned.
The upheaval at the center has also scrambled its programming department, leading to staffing changes, performance cancellations and a break with long-running traditions. Previous events related to Black History Month appeared on the center’s website with the tag “In celebration of Black History Month.” No event this year bears this tag. The Kennedy Center did not respond to a request for comment.
As the center’s president, Grenell has repeatedly said he wants the center to focus on popular events that either turn a profit or can be underwritten by sponsors. “I want there to be commonsense programming from the left, right and center,” he said in a News Nation interview on Thursday.
A long-standing tentpole of the Kennedy Center’s Black History month programming has been the annual “Living the Dream … Singing the Dream” concert presented by Washington Performing Arts and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. But this year, the 38th annual “Living the Dream” is being held 10 miles north, at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda. Washington Performing Arts is eschewing the Kennedy Center entirely for the moment, performing at a half-dozen other venues during a season of programming dubbed, “The City is Our Stage!”
Washington Performing Arts declined to comment on the decision to move the concert, beyond a statement from a publicist saying, “Strathmore is an exceptional acoustic space that … will beautifully showcase [the] “Living the Dream … Singing the Dream” program, and provide audiences with a wonderful concert experience.”
The Howard Gospel Choir, which has performed multiple times at the Kennedy Center during Black History Month, scheduled its one area concert in February at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown.
And last month saw the absence of “Let Freedom Ring!” – an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day concert organized by Georgetown University, which was held at the Howard Theatre after years at the Kennedy Center. A Georgetown spokesperson said that the university decided last spring to move the ceremony “in part to contribute to a set of proactive steps to protect the university’s financial health amid ongoing challenges.” Adding to the dearth of Black programming, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, frequent visitors to the Kennedy Center, moved 2026’s performances to the Warner Theatre instead.
The Kennedy Center does have some cultural fare on its February lineup, including a Feb. 7 “Lunar New Year Celebration with Mongolian Dance.” Not all of the center’s events depend on the participation of directors and performers. It also hosts regular movie nights. Currently on the docket for February: “Groundhog Day,” “Hitch,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Roman Holiday.”