Upon returning to the presidency this year, Donald Trump put himself in charge of Washington, DC's Kennedy Center For The Arts, angling to chase out any "woke" programming. That inspired lots of prominent staffers including Ben Folds to resign and lots of scheduled performers including the touring production of Hamilton to cancel.
In April, the fingerstyle guitarist Yasmin Williams, who is scheduled to play the Kennedy Center this year in support of her recent album Acadia, publicly shared an "insane" email exchange she had with Richard Grenell, the center's interim executive director, in which Grenell responded with hostility to Williams' queries about the changes at the Kennedy Center. Months later, Williams has posted a message on Instagram explaining why she's moving forward with her Kennedy Center performance.
Here's what she wrote:
I recently announced that I'm playing at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage on September 18th. Some folks seem confused with this decision, so I'll explain why I decided to go through with the show.
The show was originally planned several months ago, before the overhaul of the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, and before my email exchange with Ric Grenell. After these events transpired and I saw people's (understandably) negative reaction toward the Kennedy Center, with people saying they wouldn't see a show there anymore, I began to doubt whether or not I should do the show at all.
I wasn't sure if anyone would come... I'm still not sure about that... but I'm doing the show for all the Kennedy Center staff who formed their own union and are still working there, fighting to maintain the institution's integrity. I'm doing it for the folks who were unjustifiably fired. I'm doing it for the elderly ushers who were told to not wear masks publicly while working, even facing backlash from higher ups if they wore one.
I invite all of the Kennedy Center union members to the show. Please feel free to wear a mask, whether you're a staff member or a guest. I will try to personally make sure that all guests at the show are comfortable and treated with respect by the staff (which has always been the case at any show I've ever played at the Kennedy Center).
Ric Grenell, even you can come too... only if you can stomach sitting next to people who may not look like you or have your same politics... and if you can handle a polite verbal jab (or two) from me 😉
In-person and livestream tickets for Williams' 9/18 Kennedy Center show are available here.
UPDATE: On Instagram, Williams writes that she was heckled by an organized group of Republicans at the show:
During my Kennedy Center show on Thursday night, a group of Tr*mp supporters boo’d me when I mentioned Ric Grenell and seemed to be there to intimidate me. Here is a newsletter that was sent out to the Log Cabin Republicans of DC members (@logcabindc a LGBT conservative group), imploring members of this group to come to my show to “make sure the audience is filled with patriots.” They even promoted an open bar for folks to drink and then come to my show. The “office of the president” also reserved 50 tickets to my show with clearly dubious intentions. I’m certain that these folks have no interest in my music at all (or art itself), so why would they come?
Their event was moved to the Kennedy Center and the staff who were working my show had no idea of this until right before the show started. This is why I had to get escorted out of the building by several security guards. This is clearly a calculated attempt to intimidate and harass me at my own show, as well as the staff working the show. This is completely unacceptable and I will not allow this to go unnoticed. I will not be harassed and intimidated by anyone, especially these folks. Please share this post. If they would do this to me, they would do this to you… to anyone! Don’t let fascism go unchecked. Power to the people!
