The Kennedy Center Needs an Ocean Wave
I don't care what they put on the building or show on the GPS. It's called The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts—the Kennedy Center.
But I say this because they're renaming it to the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Trump-Kennedy Center. As of December 19, 2025, signage on the building reads as such and scaffolding is up for the big letters to top it off.
The bastardization of the Kennedy Center will afford this fascist government the ability to send out even stronger shockwaves of culturally engrained bigotry. White supremacy spreads quickly, racing down the river like an bacteria in the water. We've seen what can be done with these types of platforms with the resurgence of the KKK in the 1920's with their rallies and burning crosses. Oh, looky there. The 2020's. Won't that have a nice nearly symmetrical flow in the history books? History repeating itself really does get old. The Klan may not have its 1925 numbers but it's still around, and other white supremacist groups are prevalent. Their members feel empowered to execute hated on others. At what point will we chart another path and break this cycle of oppression?
Members of the Kennedy family (obviously not RFK Jr) have reacted with disbelief and rage at the desecration of the memorial to John F. Kennedy. Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, posted on Twitter “Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I’m going to need help holding the ladder. Are you in? Applying for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!”
But we shouldn't wait until then to act. We have to snuff their violent narrative out of contemporary art from all across America. Artists need to stand up to overtake the hateful toxin running down the river. We can be the ocean wave that swallows the poisoned river whole and crushes the bacteria that breeds their bigotry.
Musicians in America are creating powerful revolutionary music. Satire and meme culture are a lovely pair. Much more practiced poets than me are creating masterpieces. Our artists are standing, but theirs are too. We can win more than the narrative. I hope that we do.