The arts are under attack
And Trump's Kennedy Center is a weapon in the war
Louise Penny isn’t the only artist to eschew appearing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
The bestselling Canadian mystery author told the world on her Facebook page, and later in interviews, that she was cancelling her book launch at the Center for The Black Wolf.
“I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but given the ongoing threat of an unprovoked trade war against Canada by the U.S. president, I do not feel I can enter the United States,” she wrote.
“What is happening is not just a potential economic catastrophe for Canada and so many other nations, it is a moral wound.”
Indeed. When I first heard Penny discussing her decision on the radio, I misheard the word “wound” for “war.” Both, in my view, are correct, with apologies to Penny for my hearing. And she is helping fight this moral war.
Penny is joined in a growing boycott of the Kennedy Center by the musical Hamilton, American actor Issa Rae, singer Rhiannon Giddens and band Low Cut Connie. Several members of the board have also resigned.
“This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” Hamilton’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said in a statement on March 5. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center.”
What Miranda (you go!) is referring to, and as many of you will know, the so-called president of the United States became chairman of the Kennedy Center on Feb. 12.
On Feb. 19, the Center announced that it was cancelling (among others) a performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, entitled A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride.
The Center cited “financial reasons” for the cancellations and argued that the decision was made before FOTUS took charge. Mmmhmm. Yes, of course.
This cancellation in particular hit me in the stomach, heart and mind. To be clear, I was not shocked. Nor surprised. But I was still thoroughly revolted. And it sent me back more than two decades, when a somewhat similar thing happened in my own city.
Churches here, and I expect elsewhere, rent out their sanctuaries to arts groups. Many churches are struggling with dwindling congregations but still have massive expenses to cover. Some of these beautiful edifices are even crumbling; it’s very sad.
So this is a good way to raise funds and support infrastructure.
Some people argue that sanctuaries should remain sacred and that secular groups should not sully these spaces. I won’t argue that point here.
What I will say is that if you are renting out your space to basically all comers, you had better be consistent about the whole thing.
Back when the Earth was green, and I was still gainfully employed at the local daily paper, it came to my attention that one of the cathedrals had in fact cancelled a performance by our own local gay choir. The media, of course, covered the hell out of this act of disrespect and intolerance.
Including me. The next day, I published a column ripping the cathedral a new one, excoriating this decision of discrimination, and using the strongest language allowed in a daily family newspaper.
It was met by uproar, probably 90% on the side of the choir. I did not accomplish a single thing nor write another word for two days, as I handled emails, letters, phone calls and even personal visits to the newsroom.
I also received a very long letter from a local cleric explaining that I was a heretic and that Jesus would be displeased with me. I highly doubt that and told him so. Jesus was a really cool guy.
Anyway, the cathedral backed off. I say with confidence that we, the media, made that happen. Today, I also say that cancelling a Pride choir would not happen here again.
I think.
A few years later, I wrote a book inspired by this event, entitled Adam’s Witness. I recast the story as a murder mystery (+romance), and of course needed an actual humanish villain to shoulder the blame for the cancellation, which rather got the “Church” off the hook.
In later years, I’ve regretted that a bit, but the point of the story — that homophobia (and indeed all discrimination) is obscene, ridiculous and intolerable — stands up, I hope.
When the novel landed in 2017, I found myself wondering if the topic remained relevant. By that time, Canada had shifted many of its policies regarding gender, among them gay marriage which had long since been legalized in 2005.
Had the world turned to tolerance and love? Was I an idiot for rekindling thoughts of intolerance and hate?
Then a friend of mine, coincidentally a member of the choir and the namesake of one my characters, told me he had been refused a social work job due to being gay. He had mentioned his husband (contextually, mind) in the interview. The hiring committee froze, thanked him for his time and showed him out.
No. No, the world had not changed, and has not changed since, except for the much worse.
Today, in our province, we have a government who has instigated anti-transgender policies, although it perhaps learned a wee lesson in the last election and has softened on its most recent similar idiocies.
Today, in the United States, we have an insane narcissistic megalomaniac who has turned the tolerance clock back decades in mere weeks.
Today, independent media is becoming more and more rare. We used to make a difference. Do we still?
Today, book banning is legion.
Today, when I promote Adam’s Witness, I am greeted by a chorus of foul language and accusations of being “woke,” which of course is a far more terrible thing than “homophobic pig.”
One of whom is now running the revered Kennedy Center and declaring there will be no more “woke” performances there, nor any more “woke” behaviour in the United States.
Yeah, this is a moral war. And I’m elbowing my way into the fight.
Its saddens me greatly that this is happening.
Well put. Thank-you Jo