Kennedy Center Hit With Last-Minute New Year’s Cancelations

Joe Raedle / Getty Images More performers are canceling shows at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the wake of Donald Trump putting his name on the Washington, D.C., memorial. The Cookers, a six-piece jazz group, will no longer perform two shows at the venue on New Year’s Eve, joining a growing list of artists who want nothing to do with the MAGA-fied setting. “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” the Cookers wrote on their website. Though no reason for the schedule change was explicitly given, drummer Billy Hart told The New York Times that the president’s decision to involve himself in the historic arts center was “evidently” a factor. Read more at The Daily Beast.