Kennedy Center threatens musician with lawsuit over Trump identify protest | EUROtoday

The president of the Kennedy Center has sharply criticized a musician for canceling a Christmas Eve efficiency after the White House introduced Donald Trump’s identify could be added to the venue.

Richard Grenell, the centre’s president, despatched a letter to musician Chuck Redd condemning the choice.

He wrote: “Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution.”

Grenell additional said within the letter that he would pursue $1 million in damages, labelling the cancellation a “political stunt.”

Redd has not but responded to requests for remark.

A drummer and vibraphone participant, Redd has presided over vacation “Jazz Jams” on the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts.

In an e-mail Wednesday, Redd stated he pulled out of the live performance within the wake of the renaming.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd stated.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress handed a legislation the next yr naming the middle as a residing memorial to him.

According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board permitted the renaming, which students have stated violates the legislation.

Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy has vowed to take away Trump’s identify from the constructing as soon as he leaves workplace, and former House historian Ray Smock is amongst those that say any adjustments must be permitted by Congress.

The legislation explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the middle right into a memorial to anybody else, and from placing one other individual’s identify on the constructing’s exterior.