W. Kamau Bell attended Gold Gala 2024 at the Music Center on May 11, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images for Gold House
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Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images for Gold House
Several artists have broken the ties with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since President Trump took over the organization.
W. Kamau Bell is not part of it.
The award-winning stand-up actor at the Emmy Award and the host of the CNN series Shades of America United I chose not to cut links or cancel its shows planned at Kennedy Center, which marked the start of its 10 cities tour across the country.
“I think Joe Biden was still showing up for the president when the show was reserved,” said Bell at NPR Morning edition. “So it was not linked to all this.”
Grey’s Anatomy Creator and How to escape with the murder Executive producer Shonda Rhimes announced her departure from the Kennedy Center board of directors last week. Rhimes had been on the board of directors of the center since 2013 and was appointed by former President Barack Obama. Actress and producer Issa Rae, who created and played in HBO’s Precariousannounced on Instagram that it would cancel its closed countertop appearance scheduled for March.
Trump has appointed a new board of directors which includes the second Lady Usha Vance, the Attorney General Pam Bondi and Elaine Chao, former American Labor Secretary and the wife of the Kentucky Mitchonll Kentucky Senator.
The president wants to move away from the performances he considers as a “awakened culture”, on which Trump believes that the center has concentrated in the past, according to to CBS News reports.
W. Kamau Bell joined Michel Martin of NPR to discuss his decision not to cancel his performance, despite his disagreement with the president’s policy and the decision to take over the Kennedy Center.
This interview has been modified for duration and clarity.
Michel Martin: So tell me again how did you hear about what happened?
Kamau Bell: Trump had already said that he was going to take over, but no one knew what it meant. And so on the flight (in Washington, DC), I got Wi-Fi, as I have always done, and I started to receive emails and SMS of people on this subject and C ‘was like a clear meaning like, oh, something happened, you know?
Martin: Have you ever played Kennedy Center and or if you didn’t do it? Anyway, why did you want to go?
Bell: I made a show years ago in one of the smallest pieces, so I have a lot of respect for the Kennedy Center, and you cannot help but feel how cool it is Even there as a member of the public. You feel like a winner in good faith in Kennedy Center. There is something like, nobody is going to tell me that I am no longer a note artist, you know?
Martin: So, you and the actor you opened, Dwayne Kennedy, you made jokes on the whole situation. He said something like: “Welcome to the last time that two blacks are going to be at Kennedy Center.” And you said something in the sense of “My children like to eat every day, so that’s why I’m here.” But seriously, what did you think? Have you ever planned to cancel or not do without?
Bell: I mean, so the inhabitants of Kennedy Center stretched out because they were somehow preparing themselves to be canceled. But for me, I am connected to that as a black, to this whole story of my family to present themselves. So I knew that there had never been a point where I thought of not appearing.
In addition, let’s remember, the Kennedy Center is in a city called Washington, DC, so as much as Maga directs the White House, maybe they do not run Washington, DC and Washington, DC, has always been a Progressive bright blue place. If you want to move the White House to Branson, Mo., of course, you would program the Kennedy Center in a different way.
Martin: Say more about the decision to go or not go, because there are people who know your work, know that you are an actor, but that you are also a social commentator, you are an activist. You clearly indicate what your policy is. So just tell me what the reflection process is to decide how to get involved with the moment.
Bell: If the Kennedy Center called me this week and said to me: “Do you want to make a show at the Kennedy Center?” It might have been a different decision. I may have done it again, but it is a different decision. I have been planning this for months, do you know what I mean? And so at a certain level, it is as if I, the interpreter, wanted to do what I was looking forward to.
Then there is part of me who knows my audience – especially during stress, pain and controversy – really wants to hear from me. And a game is to introduce yourself and be my self, as my mother taught me. While the Bay region raised me. Like my – As I want my children to see me in this space at that time.
Martin: Is there a part of you who fear that you are validating things with which you do not agree by being in this space?
Bell: Not if I am my black-a ** me. I don’t want to swear. But if I can be myself in these spaces, then I do what I am supposed to do.
Martin: There are many people who are thinking of their role right now. What would you say that your work is at the moment and what would you advise others to do who are in a way in difficulty with the way they should arise or where they should present themselves or what they should do?
Bell: All my career, at least for about 15 years, has been to earn a living, but also to make sure that it is easier for the person behind me who looks like me or is aligned with me. For me, I must be noisy and be as clear as possible for people who cannot be noisy and clear. And I have to take care of my family. But that means that sometimes-and I did it for years, I refused things that were going to pay me because I can’t be there, because I don’t think there, I can be My black-a ** yourself.
People say they stay in your way and we say, “No, no. Know your way.” What can you do in the path in which you are already who can help you facilitate the task of someone who cannot do the work you can do? This is where it starts. People say to themselves: “I’m going to go back to the law faculty.” No, no, no. What are you doing right now? “I will start a non -profit organization.” No, no, no. What are you doing right now? And how can you start to make this path more equitable, more inclusive, more diverse where you are?
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