John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from across the Potomac River (Credit: Author)
“When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.” – John F. Kennedy, October 26, 1963
Never has America seen a leader so pathetic and loathsome that he insists upon taking his name onto others’ glory, and when it fails, is dedicated to ripping down monuments to greatness simply because he will never approach anything remotely resembling adequate.
Authoritarians feel that anything which do not glorify them is not only useless, but a threat to their power. The arts are targeted as a way to crush dissent. It was practiced by the Nazis: any material which degraded the ‘moral character’ of the Reich was deemed as treasonous and often saw the ‘offending’ artists jailed or killed. In the Soviet Union, the KGB and its predecessor organizations would disappear those who created art that was seen as ‘anti-revolutionary’ and even after the Khruschev Thaw in the late 50s and early 60s, critiquing the government was still enough to get you jailed. Putin’s Russia continues the tradition, routinely jailing ‘dissidents’ in horrid conditions until they die of ‘natural causes.’ Freedom of expression does not exist in North Korea.
All of these places are models for Donald Trump. They are ruled by iron-fisted despots who have the undying adoration of the nation in the eyes of the world because to express any sort of different viewpoint is a one-way express ticket to a prison or a grave. Donald Trump cannot stand anything which takes attention away from him. Kennedy’s legacy is enshrined in a unique center for the arts beloved by the city which Trump has occupied for six of the last ten years and that hates him so tremendously much.
The Kennedy Center is a Washington DC institution and a great equalizer. It served to bring the arts to the people in a way most other cities do not have. It led to outreach and supported artists. It put on free performances. It brought national productions to the nation’s capital and it did so as the closest thing America had to the old Palaces of Culture built behind the Iron Curtain. It was a labor of love, with its marble gifted from Italy, its tapestries gifted from France, its curtains gifted from Japan, its chandeliers gifted from Sweden, and its mirrors in the Grand Foyer gifted from Belgium. America’s friends and allies (whom we have so disgustingly abandoned in recent years) gave us so many amazing pieces to build the only monument to John F. Kennedy. The only monument to a slain president so beloved by his country was a palace for the arts open to all.
Yes, you could just walk into the Kennedy Center. I personally walked around it many times. I had no ticket, there was no event, but I was able to take in the majesty of the Grand Foyer, and I loved looking at the city from the roof and the views down the Potomac River from the terrace. I saw shows performed in a space which gave many of the grand old opera houses in Europe which were centuries old a run for their money in terms of beauty and grandeur.
Yet Trump’s handpicked board of loyalists has voted to close the place. Because it does not pay sufficient tribute to him, he wants to close it down. Because it does not have his name on a big, beautiful, beloved building, he wants to take away everyone else’s ability to enjoy it. He says it’s because there are serious maintenance issues at the structure, citing a recent video of a piece of the ceiling falling down. Quite convenient that this building suddenly develops a serious structural and safety problem so soon after Trump says he wants to close it for maintenance, and lying that it is in such dire shape that it might need to be torn down in its entirety. It feels like a dramatic overreaction after a federal judge tells him that he is not allowed to just put his name on a building which is named according to federal law. The threats to destroy it if he cannot claim it for himself are as childish as they are dangerous, and having someone go up to the ceiling and bash part of it in with a sledgehammer to demonstrate the place is falling apart is such a blatant repeat of his underhanded, scummy, and illegal tactics from his days as a New York City landlord. It’s the same kind of false flag attack his authoritarian idols have used for years to get their way, like when Vladimir Putin had the FSB carry out apartment bombings in 1999 to justify starting the Second Chechen War.
If the Kennedy Center is in such poor shape, why has there been no documented proof? Why has there been no federal review of why the place has had such critical maintenance deferred? Who has been tapped to perform the conditions assessment of the structure to evaluate the architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and environmental concerns which have apparently been plaguing this building for so long that there is no other option than to close it? This is a taxpayer funded building, which means the American people will be footing the bill for repairs, using money allocated through the United States Congress. And if Congress needs to apportion money, shouldn’t they have a full understanding of how much money is needed and where it needs to be used? After all, Congress represents the American people, and the American people are the ones writing the check.
Plainly put, Trump’s stated logic makes no sense. This is simply because Trump does not follow the logic he espouses. His reasons feel a lot more base and pathetic. Trump has an obsession with his perception by others. He feels the compulsive need to appear in control, grander than life, and dearly beloved. Even by people whom he hates. Especially people whom he hates. It makes no sense to Trump that anyone should dislike him, even though there are so many people for him to dislike. The artistic community is one such group of people. Trump’s insistence on tying himself to the Kennedy Center is what has driven away acts and funding from the institution. He took a nonpartisan institution and tried to make it about himself, and sees it as a personal insult that the artists previously associated with or willing to perform at the Kennedy Center do not wish to be associated with that.
The attack on the Kennedy Center is about more than one man’s outsized ego. The arts are the most human thing we do. We translate the world for each other, filtering through our own perception and skills to show to others. Every dancer, or singer, or musician, or actor, or writer, or choreographer, or director have all lived things, felt things, or thought things that are too crucial to them not to share with others through their chosen craft. The Kennedy Center was a living memorial to a man who wanted to use the might of the federal government to support that human endeavor. The memory of John F. Kennedy in the nation’s capital became a place for the artists to share their gifts with the people. A palace of culture worthy of the grand, respected shows which were put on, and the smaller experiments put on because creativity, like discovery, has no roadmap.
The artists hate Trump for his targeting of the sensibilities of the humanities, such as his disregard for history and his focus on AI supporting those who wish to drive writers and painters out of business. Art reacts to the time in which it is created. Donald Trump has not endeared himself onto anyone but his disciples and sycophants. The performers who do not wish to glorify him by virtue of proximity and association are seen as the enemy for that reason alone. To authoritarians like Trump, art must glorify the powerful and never stray from supporting their agenda and beliefs. Trump wants to reshape creativity as a way to stamp out dissent and strengthen his control. Art is no longer art for art’s sake, but another extension of the cultural control necessary to maintain an autocracy.
Trump wishes to remake the nation’s capital in his image, and the Kennedy Center is a part of that. His insistence on plastering his name on places is to secure his own legacy. When he was told no regarding the Kennedy Center, he lashed out the way a child would, trying to destroy the complex because if he cannot have something, then no one else should either. Donald Trump cannot legally tear down the Kennedy Center. Unfortunately, being illegal has never stopped his actions when it comes to construction or destruction around Washington DC. The East Wing of the White House was subject to historical reviews and other governing organizations, but Trump ordered its demolition and in less than a week, a historic structure and part of the people’s house was a dusty hole in the ground. It is his obsession with destroying things according to his will because nobody has ever told him no.
Except some people are trying to do exactly that. Protestors gathered in Washington DC last Friday to take a stand against the Kennedy Center’s demolition. While there is a contingent of people who do not see the value in fighting for one building, arguing that it can be rebuilt, the simple truth of it is that the Kennedy Center is an irreplaceable treasure. The Kennedy Center is a premiere performance venue, but it holds an emotional resonance for many locals in that their first taste of a Broadway show or a particular style of live music or what have you happened at the Kennedy Center. This place did not only provide a performance venue for artists, but offered grants and funding for programs to give young artists their own chance at sharing their talents with the world.
The Kennedy Center is a cultural institution. It was a place for the arts to be displayed in the nation’s capital with the grandeur, respect, and fanfare they deserve. This is in addition to the emotional weight of having a palace of culture mere miles away from the center of power in the nation. The Kennedy center is, “a national stage, a living memorial, an arts-education institution, a home for major performing-arts organizations, a commissioner of new work, a training ground for artists, and a way of bringing American art to audiences far beyond Washington.” It represents the ideal society where arts are supported at the highest levels because the arts are a sight of a strong, functional society and culture.
Wherever there is a place which might qualify as a stage, the players shall play on. If there are people who can think, there shall be writers and storytellers. If there is space, then there shall be dancers. If there is breathable air, there shall be singers. Destroying the Kennedy Center will not destroy our ability to create art. Trump’s disdain for creativity is matched only by his self-aggrandizement, which have come together in an unholy combination to place a target on the back of the Kennedy Center. The attack on the arts will fail wholeheartedly. There will always be free expression so long as humans are alive.
The Kennedy Center is another matter entirely. It is in very real danger of being destroyed to satiate one man’s ego. If he were to destroy it, it would be another attack on our very democracy and the rule of law. It will be mourned because it is an assault on the very ideas our nation is built upon, and an attack on the Kennedy Center is an attack on America.
But the Kennedy Center will not be destroyed. There will be dancers gliding across its stage again. There will be singers and musicians whose tunes will rattle around its concert hall. There will be players within the theater once more. The Kennedy Center will continue to stand majestically on the bank of the Potomac long after he is gone to tell the next generation that the arts have their rightful place as part of the fabric of the nation.
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