Opinion: Kennedy Center Dishonor

By Frank Alkyer I Apr. 1, 2025

The 47th Kennedy Center Honors featured a stellar group including The Grateful Dead, film director Francis Ford Coppola, Arturo Sandoval, Bonnie Raitt and The Apollo Theater. Will future Honors uphold these standards?
(Photo: Tracey Salazar)

Editor’s Note: The following served as the First Take column, which is our editor’s letter, in the April issue of DownBeat.

For the entirety of my adult life there have been a handful of televised events I considered must-watch viewing year-in and year-out: The Oscars, The Grammys, The Tonys, Ohio State vs. Michigan football (you can’t take Ohio out of the boy), The Super Bowl … and the Kennedy Center Honors.

And of these, the Kennedy Center Honors would most often bring this writer to tears. I’ve always found the event to be so beautiful in the way it told the stories of artists, who through tremendous ups and downs persisted to be recognized as important, not just by fans of their art, but by the entire nation.

The performances and presentations stir the soul. Last year, the 47th annual rightfully honored beloved jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval along with Bonnie Raitt, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, The Grateful Dead and The Apollo Theater. To see the love the honorees have for the performers, and the performers for the honorees, melts the heart.

It was awe-inspiring to witness an all-star cast, including Chucho Valdés, Sandoval’s one-time band mate in the groundbreaking band Irakere, perform Sandoval’s music, as was watching Wynton Marsalis narrate Sandoval’s life story in a beautiful, pre-recorded reel.

The Honors, as well as the Kennedy Center itself, has been a gathering place for all of the arts and all people from all walks of life in Washington, D.C., and the world — not to mention every corner of the political spectrum.

The art presented throughout the year at The Kennedy Center represents high ideals and goals — the best the arts world has to offer.

I pray that can continue.

Why? Because President Donald J. Trump fired the Center’s president, purged its board of President Joe Biden’s appointees and made himself chairman, all in the name of revenge.

I found it sad that President Trump never attended The Kennedy Center Honors during his first term in office. Yes, he had detractors who received honors, some very vocal. But as president, you’ve gotta have a spine, don’t you? There were detractors for many other presidents, too, and they still attended.

In fact, prior to that, the President of the United States only missed the event three times. Jimmy Carter didn’t go in 1979 due to the Iran hostage crisis. First Lady Rosalynn Carter did, though. George H.W. Bush had to miss in 1989 because he was on a trip to Brussels. First Lady Barbara Bush went in his place. And, Bill Clinton was on a trip to Budapest in 1994. But Hillary Clinton still attended.

The Kennedy Center, bipartisan from its birth, began in earnest in 1958 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation to create a National Cultural Center. Four years later, President John F. Kennedy launched a fundraising campaign to make that legislation reality. Following Kennedy’s assassination, Congress passed bipartisan legislation, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, to make that center a living memorial to Kennedy’s devotion to the performing arts.

President Trump said he wants to make the Center “hot,” whatever that means. The vast majority of Kennedy Center fans and donors would prefer that it stays cool … and bipartisan. DB