Advocacy, President Trump

Winter of Discontent at Kennedy Center

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Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House was an annus horribilis. As the curtain was falling on 2025, President Trump’s handpicked Board of Trustees slapped his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Trump-stacked board changed the bylaws to allow only his sycophants to vote on the name change. Trump’s name on the building desecrates the living memorial to the 35th President of the United States.

By law, “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” The illegal renaming prompted jazz drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd to cancel his Christmas Eve concert.

In a letter to Redd, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell wrote this is “your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”

Redd should call Grenell’s bluff. He would not have to worry about legal fees. Requests for donations to his legal defense fund would break the internet. It’s laughable to think the Kennedy Center would seek $1 million in damages for the cancellation of a free concert. There were no ticket sales; there were reservations. Through the discovery process, Redd would gain access to Board minutes and financial records.

Courage is contagious. Fall of Freedom is giving way to Winter of Discontent at the Kennedy Center. Shortly after Trump installed himself as chairman, “Hamilton” cancelled its 2026 run at the storied art and culture institution.

The Cookers cancelled their New Year’s Eve concerts. The band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told the New York Times “the center’s name change had ‘evidently’ played a role” in the cancellation.

In canceling their gigs, Redd, the Cookers and the cast of “Hamilton” are following in the footsteps of the legendary citizen artists featured in the Kennedy Center’s immersive exhibit, “Art and Ideals.”

At the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observed that jazz musicians were the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement. In a statement posted on their website, the Cookers said:

Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us. We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.

NEA Jazz Master Billy Taylor was artistic director at the Kennedy Center from 1994 until his death in 2010. Dr. Taylor’s composition, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free,” was an unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

Redd’s canceled concert was to be held on the Millennium Stage. The Billy Taylor Trio inaugurated the Millennium Stage on March 1, 1997.

As long as Trump’s name is on the wall, jazz musicians should not set foot in the building. The only jazz should be live from the archives, Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center (here and here).

UPDATES: Jazz trumpeter and violinist Wayne Tucker canceled his January 22, 2026 concert which was scheduled for the Millennium Stage.

When you click on the event link, this pops up.

Banjoist Béla Fleck canceled his performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center scheduled for February 19, 21 and 22, 2026.

An 18-time Grammy winner, Fleck won’t let President Trump and his “rich and weak fools” bring him down.

Fleck recorded “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” with the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Advocacy, Billie Holiday

Fall of Freedom Update

A few days before Fall of Freedom walking tour of Billie Holiday’s Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer published my opinion piece in which I wrote:

No artist has met the moment with more courage than Lady Day, whose 1939 recording of “Strange Fruit” was named song of the century by Time magazine in 1999, and was added to the National Recording Registry in 2002.

“Strange Fruit” is a timeless and empowering act of creative resistance

While Holiday is sui generis, jazz musicians were the vanguard of the civil rights movement.

At so-called black and tan clubs like the Down Beat and the Blue Note, Black and white people intermingled on an equal basis for the first time.

Jazz clubs were constantly harassed by Philadelphia police led by vice squad Capt. Clarence Ferguson and his protégé, Inspector Frank Rizzo. The nightspots became battlegrounds in the struggle for racial justice. Jazz musicians’ unbowed demeanor fashioned a new racial identity

[…]

Courage is contagious. When we gather on South Broad, we are the resistance.

In collaboration with Scribe Video Center, the walking tour began at the Academy of Music where Billie had several engagements, including on May 6, 1946.

We stopped at the former location of the Radnor Hotel, a Green Book site, where Billie and her husband-manager, Louis McKay, were arrested on February 23, 1956. The raid was led by Captain Clarence Ferguson of the Philadelphia Police vice squad. The arrest is depicted in the biopic United States vs. Billie Holiday.

The penultimate stop was the site of Emerson’s Tavern, the jazz club where Billie last performed in Philadelphia. Emerson’s is the setting for the Broadway play, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.”

The walk and talk ended at the former Attucks Hotel where on May 15, 1947, Billie’s room was raided while she was performing at the Earle Theater. Billie got a heads-up and fled to New York City where three days later she was arrested. She was subsequently convicted of narcotics possession and sentenced to one year and one day. Billie served her time at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia.

The following Monday, I plastered the sticker that was given to participants all over Freeman Alley, a graffitied place of remembrance on the Lower East Side. Freedman Alley is located about a mile from Café Society, the Greenwich Village jazz club where Billie first sang “Strange Fruit.”

In the participant feedback survey, I expressed my hope that Fall of Freedom would lead to Winter of Discontent and Freedom Summer.

To stay in the loop, send your name and email address to phillyjazzapp@gmail.com.

Advocacy, Billie Holiday, Walking Tour

Billie Holiday’s Philadelphia Walking Tour

Authoritarian regimes throughout history have targeted artists and cultural institutions. Early in his administration, President Trump issued an executive order that targeted the Smithsonian Institution.

Trump has taken over federal arts agencies and installed himself as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He threatens to withhold federal funding from organizations that do not bend the knee.

Nina Simone said an artist’s duty is to reflect the times and the situations in which they find themselves.

Today, we find ourselves in a situation in which Trump wants to control the narrative.

Fall of Freedom issued an urgent call to artists, creators and cultural workers to stand united against the assault on our constitutional rights and authoritarian control. Fall of Freedom is a celebration of art, courage, and free expression.

No artist reflected the times more courageously than Billie Holiday whose recording of “Strange Fruit” was named Song of the Century by Time magazine in 1999 and included in the National Recording Registry in 2002.

Join All That Philly Jazz and Scribe Video Center on November 22, 2025 for this nationwide wave of creative resistance.

The walking tour will be guided by All That Philly Jazz Director Faye Anderson whose advocacy led to Billie’s induction into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame. We will visit the venues where Billie sang, the hotels where she stayed, and the site of the jazz club immortalized in the Tony Award®-winning “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.”

Along the way, we will stop at places connected to Nina Simone and Paul Robeson, artists who, like Billie, used their voices to speak truth to power.

The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. To reserve your spot, scan the QR code or go here.

Art matters. Courage is contagious. We are the resistance.

Advocacy

Election Day 2025

Early voting is underway in many states. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4, 2025.

Your vote is your voice. A high voter turnout will send a message to the wannabe dictator in the White House. So be careful how you vote.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage, Moses Williams

Visit a Cemetery Day 2025

The last Sunday in October is Visit a Cemetery Day. It’s an annual observance to promote a connection with the past, honor the memories of those who came before us, and appreciate the historical and cultural significance of cemeteries.

Before cities built public parks, cemeteries were the first green spaces open to everyone. In the 19th century, rural cemeteries were designed as peaceful, landscaped grounds where people could walk, picnic and reflect. Their winding paths, trees, and gardens offered an escape from crowded urban life. These “cities of the dead” influenced the design of public parks. Historic cemeteries like Laurel Hill in Philadelphia and Green-Wood in New York City remain vital, beautiful green spaces.

That history was lost on me in my youth. When I was in high school, I avoided taking the shortcut to school because I did not want to walk through a cemetery. Fast forward to today, St. Peter’s Churchyard is a stop on my Moses Williams’ Philadelphia walking tour. St. Peter’s is the final resting place of Moses’ enslaver, Charles Willson Peale.

Master silhouette artist Moses Williams was interred in Northwest Burial Ground on December 20, 1830.

At the time, the cemetery was located at 16th and Fairmount. Sometime between 1860 and 1875, the Northwest Burial Ground was sold, the bodies disinterred, and the land developed. The bodies were reinterred in Mount Moriah Cemetery in West Philadelphia. So presumably that’s where Moses’ remains are located.

I’m digging in the archives to confirm that Mount Moriah is indeed Moses’ final resting place. I want to find his remains so that I can see that Moses’ grave is kept clean.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan

A Stroll Through North Broad’s Jazz History

Join All That Philly Jazz Director Faye Anderson for a stroll through North Broad’s storied jazz history. We will walk the streets of North Philly and stop at places that hold the stories of legends-in-the-making like Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, James Brown, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Patti LaBelle, Lee Morgan and Grover Washington Jr.

Our journey will take us to such sites as the Hotel Carlyle, Pyramid Club, Heritage House/Freedom Theatre, Cameo Room, Barber’s Hall, Flamingo Apartments, Nixon Grand Theater and Mitten Hall.

📅 Saturday, October 25, 2025
🕙 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
💬 Free and open to the public (space is limited)

Registration is required. Reserve your spot here.

“A Stroll Through North Broad’s Jazz History” is organized by Scribe Video Center. The North Philadelphia History Festival is supported by the William Penn Foundation.

Advocacy, President Trump, The President's House

Since his return to the White House, President Trump has punished individuals and institutions that refuse to bend the knee. In a guest essay published in the New York Times, Henry J. Farrell, a professor of democracy and international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, argues that collective action is the best defense against authoritarianism:

President Trump is trying to seize power that he is not entitled to under the law or the Constitution.

But Mr. Trump will fail in remaking American politics if people and institutions coordinate against him, which is why his administration is targeting businesses, nonprofits and the rest of civil society, proposing corrupting bargains to those who acquiesce and punishing holdouts to terrify the rest into submission.

This is one part of Mr. Trump’s bigger agenda to remake American politics so that everyone wants to be his friend and no one dares to be his enemy.

[…]

Those who oppose authoritarianism have to play a different game, creating solidarity among an unwieldy coalition, which knows that if everyone holds together, they will surely succeed.

Coordinated resistance stopped the National Park Service from removing interpretive signs at the President’s House for now.

In a recent editorial, the Philadelphia Inquirer acknowledged the impact of vigilance and collective courage:

Kudos to everyone who pushed back against Donald Trump’s attempt to whitewash the history of slavery at the President’s House site near the Liberty Bell.

Trump’s ridiculous executive order instructed the National Park Service to remove or cover up displays on federal sites that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

The arbitrary Sept. 17 deadline to remove the material has passed. For now, the President’s House exhibits remain untouched. But vigilance is still required, given Trump’s erratic policy approach and alarming cognitive state.

I am name-checked in the editorial. All That Philly Jazz is one of 255 signatories to an open statement pushing back against Trump’s attacks on arts and cultural institutions.

Mobilized by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, we are standing together to resist censorship:

Arts and culture bring people together. They spark joy, foster belonging, enrich communities, and help us imagine new possibilities. Arts and culture also open space for complexity—for grappling with different perspectives, for hearing what we might rather ignore, and for facing what makes us uncomfortable. Cultural organizations, including art, culture, history, and science museums, as well as libraries, theaters, and dance and performance spaces, make these encounters possible. They are key to the functioning of a democracy, as they promote freedom of expression, encourage critical thinking, and create important opportunities for public discussion and dissent.

[…]

As contributors to the sphere of art and culture, and as representatives of US art and cultural institutions that create space for art, ideas, innovation, and public engagement, we stand firm in the shared values that make for a robust arts and culture landscape: free expression, active debate, responsibility, and care.

Add your voice to the resistance at collective-courage.com.