Kennedy Center must pay $250,000 in legal fees to musician who canceled in protest

Filed 1w ago · Via NPR · The Buffoon Desk

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Frogs Legs Rag

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Chicago Tribune · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A D.C. judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay jazz musician Chuck Redd more than $250,000 in legal fees after he canceled his nearly 20-year-running Christmas Eve concert in protest of Trump's name being added to the center's facade. The Kennedy Center had sued Redd for $1 million for breach of contract, but the suit was dismissed in June under D.C.'s anti-SLAPP law, which protects public interest speech.

Trump's name was later removed from the facade following a separate federal court ruling; he remains chairman of the center after ousting its previous leadership in 2025. The center says it intends to appeal the fee award.

The Kennedy Center's broader future remains murky, with most public programming still suspended and a federal judge demanding updates on plans for construction and access. Democratic board members reportedly haven't seen any of those plans ahead of a board vote this month.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Suing a musician for a million dollars over a Christmas concert and losing so badly you owe him a quarter of that back is the kind of outcome that writes its own headline. The Kennedy Center's leadership seems more interested in punishing dissent than running an arts institution, and the bill for that hobby just landed. Appeal away — the math isn't going to improve.

Source: Read the original at NPR → Scored: Frogs Legs Rag · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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