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Actress Issa Rae cancels sold-out Kennedy Center show after Trump named chairman of venue
By Gabriel Hays
Published February 14, 2025
Actress Issa Rae announced she canceled her sold-out Kennedy Center event after President Trump was named its chairman.
Rae, who’s the creator and director of the HBO series, "Insecure," posted to Instagram that she was pulling "An Evening with Issa Rae" from the famous D.C. arts venue due to an "infringement on the values of the institution."
"Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I've decided to cancel my appearance at this venue," the actress wrote on her Instagram story on Thursday.
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Actress Issa Rae canceled her sold-out Kennedy Center show after President Trump fired and replaced its previous boardmembers and became the venue's chair. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
She thanked her fans for "selling out" the show and added that "all tickets will be refunded." The show had been scheduled for March 16. The venue confirmed with Fox News Digital that the now-cancelled show was sold-out.
In a subsequent post, Rae shared a meme mocking Trump as an "ugly a-- b----" – further suggesting that Trump’s recent shakeup of the venue was the reason for her canceling the show.
Trump announced on Truth Social last week that he decided to fire multiple Kennedy Center board members, including its chair, David Rubenstein. The president declared that he and Rubenstein "do not share [the same] Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture."
Trump indicated that he was displeased with the progressive nature of some of the Kennedy Center’s recent events, adding, "Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP."
The Kennedy Center in October hosted a Dancing Queens Drag Brunch at its Roof Terrace Restaurant in October, featuring Washington, D.C.'s "most fabulous drag performers," according to its website.
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Trump recently complained about The Kennedy Center putting on a drag event in October 2024. (The Kennedy Center)
The Center listed its new board members to its website this week. Among them are Second lady Usha Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick’s wife, Allison Lutnick, and White House deputy chief of staff for national security Dan Scavino.
The new board unanimously voted to elect Trump as the new chair on Wednesday.
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The reconstitution of the board prompted other celebrities to ditch their associations with the venue. The creator of TV drama series "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy," Shonda Rhimes, resigned as The Kennedy Center’s treasurer, and singer Ben Folds quit his post as the National Symphony Orchestra’s artistic adviser.
In his own Instagram post, Folds declared, "Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic advisor to the NSO. Not for me."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/actress-issa-rae-cancels-sold-out-kennedy-center-show-after-trump-named-chairman-venue