Ben Folds, a masterful pianist and singer-songwriter, has soundtracked my life with his acerbic wit and penchant for singing about losers.
As I’ve grown with him, I find I admire his character just as highly as his music.
A longtime supporter of arts education, Folds spearheads North Carolina’s Keys for Kids initiative and advocates for politicians invested in pro-arts agendas. Therefore, it’s no surprise Folds was appointed in 2017 to be the first-ever Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center—a world-renowned, government-operated performing arts mecca in Washington D.C.—whose diverse programming, blend of multimedia endeavors, and youth education initiatives are the result of famously nonpartisan board members who help ensure broad financial support and artistic content.
Countless programs exist at the Kennedy Center for young people with interests in dance, jazz, orchestra, and theater careers, offering a robust focus on outstanding artists with disabilities and age-appropriate programming that ensures access for anybody and everybody. However, following President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Center as he fired board members and positioned himself as chairman, I fear not only for the integrity of the Kennedy Center’s programs, but for the sanctity of this spectrum. My fears have only been worsened by resignations from Folds and fellow advisor Renée Fleming, as well as board member Shonda Rhimes.
No sitting president has ever served as chair, let alone a board member, of the Kennedy Center. Trump’s sudden involvement is confusing considering his history of shunning the Center due to their lack of political support for him, but the repercussions of this sudden interest have already manifested in one of his favorite pastimes: targeting LGBTQ+ identities.
In a Truth Social post published five days before his chairmanship commenced, Trump announced his “Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture”—one that would do away with “anti-American” drag performances “targeting our youth.” The drag Trump is referring to is “Dragtastic Dress-Up,” a performance for LGBTQ+ youth under the age of 18 that ran at the Kennedy Center last year. Since assuming his new role, the Kennedy Center has also cancelled the well-received children’s musical “Finn,” a project functioning as an uplifting LGBTQ+ metaphor, and “A Peacock Among Pigeons,” an NSO concert featuring the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.
“President Trump and the members of his newly-appointed board,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a recent statement, “are devoted to rebuilding the Kennedy Center into a thriving and highly respected institution where all Americans and visitors from around the world can enjoy the arts with respect to America’s great history and traditions.”
Why do we suddenly need to rebuild the Kennedy Center, which has been open since 1971? For more than 50 years, board leadership has upheld former President John F. Kennedy’s wishes of presenting world-class art and educational opportunities that reflect “the cultural diversity of the United States.” In fact, previous chair David M. Rubenstein was so loyal to these ideals that he pledged over $100 million to the Center to strengthen its educational programming, resulting in the Rubenstein Arts Access Program which increased access to the arts for young and underprivileged people, and REACH, a state-of-the-art community arts/classroom space that housed the “Dragtastic” event.
Now, such programs are at risk, and the cultural purge Trump is alluding to lies beyond the Kennedy Center. Take, for example, this Tuesday, when Trump issued an executive order temporarily shuttering the doors of Dorchester’s JFK Library and Museum and dismissing workers without prior warning. Though the institution reopened the following day, this thoughtless gutting of an iconic educational landmark stands as a chilling snapshot of how little the current administration values culture and the forces that shape it.
To better understand the severity of these threats, I spoke to Elijah Carrion, a freshman at Emerson and an experienced drag performer.
“The drag community is one of the most beautiful communities in the world,” Elijah said. “It brings so many people like myself together to create change, build relationships, form peace, and pave the way for new generations.”
For Elijah, drag isn’t just performance, it’s purpose. His words echo the press release for “Dragtastic Dress-Up,” which invited youth patrons to “delve into the rich history of drag while enjoying the mesmerizing talents of these beloved performers.”
In purging the Kennedy Center of this life-changing programming, I believe our president has taken the dangerous first step in initiating a bull-headed censorship campaign under the guise of ushering in this so-called “Golden Age.” Coupled with the National Endowment for the Arts’ recent decision to forego support for “underserved communities” in favor of funding projects that celebrate 18th century American history, it seems Trump has mistaken all work that reflects the complexities of identity and sexuality as an attack on our nation’s morals. This isn’t exactly unprecedented; a similar scenario happened in 1971 when former President Richard Nixon was absent from the Kennedy Center’s grand opening, fearing Leonard Bernstein, who premiered his piece “Mass,” would sneak anti-Vietnam messages into the presentation.
This comparison isn’t one-to-one: Nixon was paranoid of wartime criticism, and Trump is paranoid of performing arts as a whole. He thinks drag queens, like all performers, have the power to unite communities. And if communities can unite, they can unite against his conservative ideals. His solution? Cut them off at the knees so as to keep impressionable minds from becoming nasty free thinkers.
Shonda Rhimes posted a JFK quote alongside her resignation announcement on Instagram that feels incredibly relevant to all of this: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
If Trump molds society to block the artist, who will nourish our roots? In driving out figures like Ben Folds, as well as a whole host of performers who announced cancellations at the Center, the evils of suppression reign supreme. I believe the only way to overcome a force this monumental is for fearless artists, like they always have at the Kennedy Center, to keep pushing on. Otherwise, who will be the ones to pass on rich performance traditions to the youth? Subsequent generations will never know how beautiful it was to live in a world where drag, jazz music, and children’s theater coexisted under one roof.
“Being able to express my emotions through makeup and performance truly does make me happy,” Elijah said. “When I get on stage and perform I just feel so proud of myself because many years ago I wasn’t able to do that.”
