Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the former Vice President of Social Impact at the Kennedy Center, speaks out after the Trump administration dismantled the center’s Social Impact team— or the radical woke agenda he was trying to push. The move is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to cut federal funding to the performing arts institute for its woke programming.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Joseph slammed President Donald Trump for cutting his team, which aimed to expand the art center’s reach to diverse audiences by Black composers. In a video, after he was terminated, he said he was taking everything “black” in his office down, accusing Trump, the new chair of the Kennedy Center, “is doing its best to disavow much of the literal color that has made this place special.”
During his time at the Kennedy Center, Joseph launched the Culture Caucus, which offered two-year residencies with organizations that worked with queer and transgender youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, and the disabled community. He also established a national partnership program called Conflux, which worked with the National Arab Orchestra, the First Nations community, and World Pride. One program, Cartography, has been running since 2019, and over one million dollars have been spent over the open-ended life span of this project. In 2024, it spent $311,200; in 2025, the budget is $494,999. During the Cartography project, Joseph said, "Classical music has a problem with diversity because America has a problem with diversity."
Meanwhile, the Culture Caucus spends about $300,000 annually and focuses on "crushing colonialism." Joseph accused Trump of attacking the queer and trans community and "forced" the Kennedy Center to withdraw support from events featuring drag or "drag adjacent" performances.
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These programs were not open to the public and were exclusively given to individuals whose art pushed a progressive political agenda. Performers had no chance if they didn’t share the same political views. The network was so insular that it even allowed the same person, Samora Pinderhughes, to receive artist residencies in both San Francisco and DC.
Joseph suggested that now Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center, visitors don’t feel safe, saying that the general feeling is “vulnerability and impending violence” at a place that is supposed to be a “sanctuary for free thought and expression.” He called the new shift toxic, with artists in “imminent danger.”
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