This guitarist still wants you to see Kennedy Center shows

Since President Donald Trump began his pursuit of a full-scale overhaul of the Kennedy Center, musician Yasmin Williams has been among its fiercest defenders.

Last year, she went toe-to-toe with then-acting director Richard Grenell in an email exchange that went viral. The musician pressed Grenell about the center’s rollback of DEI initiatives and other program changes, and then posted screenshots of his “rude” and “unprofessional” responses. Grenell later set aside passes for a group that came to boo and heckle her performance.

Despite that tension, Williams has not given up on the institution as a whole.

Late last month, in fact, the 30-year-old fingerstyle guitarist announced on Instagram that she’s helping to book shows for the center’s Millennium Stage series — the only shows currently on its calendar besides National Symphony Orchestra performances, which have been booked at other venues.

The free concerts, which span genres and have consistently spotlighted up-and-coming local artists, used to happen outside the venue’s concert hall or in its Eisenhower Theater. With the main building closed since September, they now take place on the far end of the campus, at its River Pavilion, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Williams says attending these shows is one of the few remaining ways to support Kennedy Center staff, contract workers, and performers.

But not everyone agrees with her choice. Some of Williams’ followers have reached out and questioned her loyalty.

“This feels like a slap in the face to the entire point of the political action we’re taking against the horrid president and what he has done to this cultural institution,” one commenter wrote, accusing her of “abandoning a boycott” of the center. “We need rebellion and not conformity at this point in time.”

In a recent interview, Williams told The 51st that, while she’s aware of artists who have pulled out of performances, she doesn’t know of any specific, organized boycott on behalf of artists or workers at the Kennedy Center. Rather, she encourages audiences to attend the shows that are still being booked.

“At the end of the day, if we care about the arts and music in the DMV, this is the best institution for that,” Williams says. “It pays artists and workers really well. And if you give up on it, then people lose their jobs, and artists can't play there.”

Grassroots organizers who have protested the takeover have been agnostic on a boycott, according to Mallory Miller, co-founder of Hands Off the Arts. The coalition has tried to drum up support for the arts center and its staff since Trump took over but also understands why audiences have stopped attending shows and donations have plummeted.

“People feel that the takeover of the Kennedy Center is a moral injury of sorts, and they cannot put their financial backing behind it,” writes Miller in an email. “It is also true that our friends are still at the center … They have been calling for audiences to come to their shows this whole time. They need an audience to play to. What is the point of live performing arts otherwise?”

Yasmin Williams, wearing a Juneteenth shirt, stands between two organizers wearing red United Arts Workers shirts at the Kennedy Center. — Williams with Hands Off the Arts organizers after her Millennium Stage performance last year, during which she was heckled by a group of disrupters.

Damage to the workforce has already been done. The Kennedy Center has undergone several rounds of layoffs since Trump took over as board chair, prompting allegations of labor law violations from the union representing box office employees.

Williams says she proactively reached out to the center amid the staff changes and offered to volunteer her support, given her extensive network of peer musicians. Her aim is to bring artists from all backgrounds and genres to the stage with an emphasis on D.C.-area musicians whenever possible, she says.

Millennium Stage shows will remain free “in perpetuity,” despite broader financial woes at the center under Trump, and they continue to pay staff and artists a competitive wage, according to Williams. (The series is funded by a separate endowment.)

“I understand that people are frustrated. I understand that people wanted to boycott the Kennedy Center because [Trump’s] name was on it. Artists are pulling out. But I guess I just think of it from a worker's perspective,” Williams says. “I don't understand why people would let Trump ruin yet another thing in this country without giving him a fight, at least.”

Standing with Williams is indie singer-songwriter Chris Pierce, who has performed twice at the Millennium Stage, most recently in March 2025. His set drew national attention at a time when many artists were canceling their Kennedy Center dates. He received vitriol in his inbox from people who were quick to jump on their keyboard and didn’t understand his motivation, he says.

“If I decided to perform there again, it wouldn't be for the current board or administration,” he tells The 51st. “It would be in solidarity with the artists and the staff and the community. I think that's an important way of also taking a stand, and it's also a way of protest.”

For Williams, who grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia and now lives in Falls Church, it all comes back to the local music scene. She remembers how proud she felt performing at the Kennedy Center for the first time in 2019. Naturally, it was a Millennium Stage show.

For local artists, she says, the competitive pay and major platform at the Kennedy Center are hard to beat.

“You're not gonna be booked at The Anthem as a local artist, you're just not,” she adds. “Maybe a couple of the really smaller ones. And yet, those aren't free shows for the audience. So it's huge for the local artistic community.