On Friday (18 September), around 1,500 members and supporters of the organisation Hands Off the Arts formed a human chain around the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Surrounding barricades that police installed the day of the protest and the blue-and-white striped tarpaulin covering the wall where US President Donald Trump’s name was once displayed, protestors held hands, sang and demanded justice for the arts institution.
The local drag queen Tara Hoot hosted the event, introducing Hands Off the Arts co-founders Mallory Miller and Chris Raleigh. Composed of former Kennedy Center staff, artists, union organisers and their allies, Hands Off the Arts was founded last year to fight the laying off of hundreds of workers, and has organised against Trump’s attempts to put his name on the centre and, most recently, to close it for either a $257m renovation or a total demolition.
At Friday’s rally, Miller and Raleigh spoke about their memories of the Kennedy Center and the impacts of President Trump’s attacks on the institution since he purged its board and filled it with allies who elected him board chair last year. “He came in on a wrecking ball,” Miller thundered over the loudspeaker, referring to the president as “the philistine in charge”.
Protesters at the 18 September rally at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC Photo by Emma Cieslik
Raleigh said: “Trump came here to conquer us, to conquer DC, to conquer the Kennedy Center.” He went on to offer the president a deal: Trump would leave the Kennedy Center alone, reinstate its bipartisan board and return as a paying patron. Raleigh added: “It’s the best deal you’re ever going to get.”
The actor Lynda Carter, best known for playing Wonder Woman on television in the 1970s, attended the protest and told the crowd: “Music and the arts is how we actually survive.”
Appropriately, for a rally at what is effectively the US’s national performing arts centre, music was a key part of Friday's protest. Attendees sang The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and My Country, ‘Tis of Thee. Many carried US flags—some right-side-up and some upside down, a maritime signal of distress. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and the Rapid Response Choir also performed, along with the DC Activist Street Band.
Attendees at the 18 September rally, one of whom carried balloons depicting President Trump as a diaper-clad baby, formed a human chain around the Kennedy Center Photo by Emma Cieslik
According to Hoot, the more than 1,000 protesters who showed up represented 42 states and seven different countries. Don Beyer, a Democratic representative from Virginia, and Robert C. White Jr, an at-large member of the council of the District of Columbia, also spoke at the event, affirming their commitment to challenging Trump ahead of the US midterm elections on 3 November.
After the speeches and performances, protesters spread out around the building, forming a human chain to symbolise, as Miller put it, “a barrier that Trump and his lackeys will have to go through to get to the Kennedy Center”.
The rally, officially dubbed “Hands Around the Kennedy Center”, was “a nostalgia inspired event”, Miller told The Art Newspaper. “The people who have worked and played and performed at the Kennedy Center remember it as a vibrant cultural centre, and in the last 19 months, that has changed drastically thanks to Trump and his board of trustees. We thought it would be a nice idea to bring people back to the centre and have that vibrant community feeling again.”
Attendees at the 18 September protest carried puppets of Uncle Sam Photo by Emma Cieslik
Hand in hand, protestors sang, wept and cheered as passing cars on the highway across the Potomac River honked in solidarity. Attendees held up signs that, among other things, read: “You’re No Jack Kennedy” and “DC is not Mar-A-Lago”. One man carried three balloons depicting Trump as a diaper-clad baby, while two others operated puppets with the figure of Uncle Sam holding dollar bills over his mouth and eyes.
So many people attended that some portions of the building were encircled twice. Protesters then gathered around the front of the building and, as the event ended and the sun set, sang This Little Light of Mine.