In the latest fallout after the take over at the Kennedy Center, the week long World Pride Festival this summer has been cancelled.
The festival was in celebration of LGBTQ+ rights in Washington, D.C.
Tapestry of Pride was scheduled for June 5 to 8 with a number of artists scheduled to appear. Some events have been quietly moved to other venues.
However, the Tapestry of Pride event is still listed on the Kennedy Center website.
In the wake of the cancellations, the Capital Pride Alliance of Washington has “disassociated itself from the Kennedy Center”. Deputy director of the alliance June Crenshaw said, “we are a resilient community, and we have found other avenues to celebrate. We are finding another path to the celebration … but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing.”
June is National Pride Month with celebrations and parades planned all over the country.
The World Pride Festival is a month long even takes place every two years. This year the festival is set to begin May 17 and run to June 8. Numerous celebrations have been planned in and around Washington, D.C.; but with recent comments and attitudes coming out of the White House have cast a dark cloud over the festival.
Since February there have been a great number of changes at the Kennedy Center beginning with a hostile takeover from the White House that has included a complete cleaning out of the board and officials. The changes resulted in a number of artists cancelling events at the Kennedy Center.
Founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra Michael Roest said, “I know that D.C. as a community will be very excited to be hosting World Pride, but I know the community is a little bit different than the government.” The orchestra had their June 5 Kennedy Center performance cancelled back in February, just after the take over. Roest was waiting for the final contract when the performance was cancelled via a one sentence email that stated, “we are no longer able to advance your contract at this time.”
Roest added, “they went from very eager to host to nothing. We have not since heard a word from anybody at the Kennedy Center, but that’s not going to stop us.” He added that the Orchestra would no longer perform at the Kennedy Center.
The Pride Orchestra performance has since been moved to the Strathmore Theater in Bethesda, Maryland.
Crenshaw has moved the drag story time and the AIDS Memorial Quilt display has been moved to Chinatown.
After an abrupt cancellation from the Kennedy Center, arts and cultural journalist and event planner Monica Alford noted that she is still working on finalizing her event – a family friendly event. Alford noted, “we’re doing our community a disservice — not just the queer community but the entire community.”