The Kennedy Center’s interim executive director, Richard Grenell – a staunch ally of Donald Trump – accused a professional musician of “vapidness” after she emailed him over concerns of the now Trump-controlled center’s rollbacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Earlier this week, Yasmin Williams, an award-winning musician who has performed multiple times at the Washington DC-based performing arts center, emailed Grenell regarding the center’s DEI plans, pointing to the cancellations of a concert by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington as well as Finn, a children’s musical about a shark who feels different from other sharks.
“These events have caused a major negative reaction in my musical community to playing at the Kennedy Center, with lots of individuals I know ultimately canceling their shows there,” Williams wrote, adding: “Most folks seem to be placing the blame on the president for degra[ding] the formerly prestigious institution.”
Williams went on to ask Grenell whether Trump cared about artists cancelling their shows at the center and what, if anything, had changed about the center’s hiring practices, performance bookings and staffing.
Grenell, a former acting director of national intelligence whom Trump appointed to oversee the center after making himself the chair, responded with a series of messages, accusing Williams of believing “newspapers who exist to hate Republicans”.
“Every single person who cancelled a show did so because they couldn’t be in the presence of Republicans,” Grenell wrote in messages Williams later posted on Instagram. “We didn’t fire a single show. We don’t cancel a single show … Read more. Don’t swallow what the media tells you. Don’t be gullible.”
Grenell also wrote: “Your people also booed and harassed the vice president who simply wanted to enjoy music with his wife for a night. Who is the intolerant one?”
Last month, an audience booed JD Vance and his wife, Usha, as they took their seats at the center’s National Symphony Orchestra concert in response to Vance and his allies’ attacks on alleged “improper ideology” at Washington’s cultural institutions.
In response, Williams repeated her questions and wrote: “Your assumptions on my political leanings are incorrect, by the way. Let’s try to be professional.”
Grenell then went on to accuse Williams of “vapidness”, writing: “I’m too busy to confront your vapidness to believe what you read without doing your own research. But I will say that your assumptions are wrong.”
“The programs are so woke that they haven’t made money,” he continued. Grenell, who in his earlier replies had said “We don’t cancel a single show”, went on to say: “Yes, I cut the DEl bullshit because we can’t afford to pay people for fringe and niche programming that the public won’t support … Yes, we are doing programming for the masses in order to pay our bills. No, the into[l]erants who left help us. They were the most intolerant people you’ve ever met. They couldn’t play a show if Republicans were present. That’s weird.”
Following the email thread, Williams wrote on Instagram: “Make of this info what you will! Clearly the Kennedy Center is in awful hands. As someone who has played there several times and attended several shows there, it’s disturbing that this guy has a job at all, especially one at the KC. Do better Kennedy Center.”
Williams told CNN on Thursday that she was “shocked” by the “bizarre” exchange.
“I was shocked at first if anything because, honestly, I thought it was fake. I thought it was just like, is this ChatGPT? Like, what is this?” she said, adding: “He’s not responding like I assume the executive director, interim or not, of the Kennedy Center would respond to an email. It was just bizarre.”
Yasmin also told the network that current and former employees of the center reached out to her after she posted the ordeal on social media, telling her that it was “really nice and refreshing to see how they talk to us and how they treat us come to light”.
The Guardian has reached out to Williams for comment.
Trump’s takeover of the prestigious institution in February triggered widespread criticism throughout the performing arts industry as well as the public. Issa Rae, creator and star of Insecure, canceled her one-night-only sold-out show scheduled for March while the Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes resigned as the center’s treasurer.
The soprano singer Reneé Fleming announced her departure last month as artistic adviser to the center while the singer-songwriter Ben Folds stepped down as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra.
