Last week, Yasmin Williams announced a free show at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on September 18. Now the Virginian composer and guitarist—who posted screenshots of a heated email exchange with Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell in April, and later elaborated on the experience in an interview with Pitchfork —has shared a statement explaining her decision.
According to Williams, her upcoming performance was planned prior to President Donald J. Trump’s overhaul of the Kennedy Center board of trustees. “I’m doing the show for all the Kennedy Center staff who formed their own union and are still working there, fighting to maintain the institution’s integrity,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m doing it for the folks who were unjustifiably fired