After Donald Trump emptied the Kennedy Center, settled as president and put a lot of friends on the board, guitarist Yasmin Williams contacted the interim executive director of the institution, Richard Grenell, with fairly reasonable questions.
Williams, who has played Kennedy Center several times over the years, wrote to Grenell that she was concerned about problems such as the reported setbacks of the Kennedy Center initiatives and the pointed cancellation of certain shows. She mentioned a concert canceled by the male gay choir of Washington and a production of FinnishA musical of maturity for children on a young shark that feels different from other sharks.
Noting that the redesign and such decisions had led many of its musical peers to cancel their Kennedy Center programs, Williams asked two questions to Grenell on the present and the future of the historic institution: “Does the president really care about the artists of cancellation of the shows at the Kennedy Center?” And, “what, if necessary, changed about Kennedy Center concerning hiring practices, performance booking and staff?”
The note launched a surreal and controversial exchange between Williams and Grenell, including the old screenshots shared on Instagram. Unsurprisingly, Grenell – who was Trump’s ambassador to Germany during his first mandate – did not seem interested in really engaging with the questions of Williams. He answered his initial email with non-sequestrian franc: “Let me ask you this question, do you play for the Republicans or do you boycott if the Republicans came to your program?
After Williams noted that as a professional musician who “played hundreds of shows”, she has probably played for many Republicans over the years, she has questioned the relevance of Grenell’s response. The acting director then made the wild affirmation that “each person who canceled a show did it because they could not be in the presence of Republicans”.
Grenell continued to complain to Williams that “your people also hué and harassed”, vice-president JD Vance when he and his wife, Usha Vance, attended a show by Kennedy Center last month. He also alleged that the Kennedy Center had “zero in the bank and zero in the reserves” and that “programs are so awakened that they did not earn money”.
He added: “Yes, I cut the bullshit Dei because we cannot afford to pay people for the frigning and niche program that the public will not support. Yes, I cut people who earn more than $ 500 per year because we are in debt. Yes, we do a program for the masses in order to pay our bills.”
(While Grenell has not appointed any specific cutting program or programs, concerning the cancellation of Finnish – The musical Williams mentioned in its first email – The Kennedy Center previously declared that its cancellation was a “purely financial decision” which was underway before the change of leadership. This despite the fact that Finnish Frequently played to exhaust crowds at the Kennedy Center and made a profit, according to the co-creator of the show Michael Koman.)
The last Williams screenshot shared his conversation with Grenell found him encouraging the interim director to “connect my original email because you seem to be extremely defensive without reason”.
She added: “I have never accused you of being intolerant … I don’t know you. I was relaying what the others said about the Kennedy Center and I asked my own questions. I am honestly shocked to see how little emails are, but I suppose that it is up to these days, on both sides of the political effort.”
By reflecting on the exchange in the legend of her post, Williams said that she had sent an email to Grenell as part of an effort to “go to the direct source” for her questions because of contradictory reports on the upheavals of the Kennedy Center. From his decision to share the exchange, Williams said: “I hope that the publication of this email thread illuminates the terrible people who now run the Kennedy Center. I had so many incredible career and life salient at the Kennedy Center and I hate thinking that the establishment could be permanently permanently by this man.”
A representative of Kennedy Center did not immediately return a request for comments.
