12 Feb 2025

Artistic authority / Lifeless language

Emily and Miriam's Kennedy Center reverie, and pleasantries from Brian Hioe

Photo illustration by Emily Flake. Photo: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain via Wikipedia.

Today: Emily Flake, cartoonist, writer, performer, illustrator, and proprietress of St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency for Ladies in Williamsport, PA., Miriam Jayaratna, NYC-based clinical psychologist, humor writer, and stepmother to a maladjusted corgi; and Brian Hioe, Taipei-based editor, translator, activist, DJ, and co-founder of New Bloom.

Issue No. 256

Programming at the Kennedy Center, Revised
Emily Flake and Miriam Jayaratna

What I Really Mean
Brian Hioe

Programming at the Kennedy Center, Revised

by Emily Flake and Miriam Jayaratna

Giant cartoon Trump mouth agape clambering over top of Kennedy ctr bldg — Photo illustration by Emily Flake. Photo: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain via Wikipedia.

President Trump announced his intention on Friday to bring the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington more firmly under his control, saying he would dismiss several board members and install himself as chairman. – The New York Times, February 7, 2025

In light of personnel changes at the Kennedy Center, we present some exciting new additions to the upcoming season, which promises to bring our programming into alignment with the Administration’s vision of a new “Golden Age,” as the President has put it, of American arts:

Showboat: A Tribute to Elon Musk. A nostalgic look back at an America where everyone knew their place, and an investigation of American history that asks: where did we go wrong? This production restores the language of the original. Feel free to sing along, and really hit that hard R!

Rob Schneider, A Permanent Residency. We welcome the great patriot and comedian Rob Schneider to the KC stage for a residency of at least 208 weeks. Rob’s brand of no-holds-barred humor cements his status as one of our bravest cultural warriors, defending the public from woke-mind virus, nanny-state goons, and Mexicans. Make America Laugh Again!

Kid Rock Sings the GREAT! American Songbook. One of the nation’s greatest troubadours celebrates our rich cultural heritage with his interpretations of the classics: “Over the Rainbow: I’m Just So Done With Gays,” “All That Jizz, and Other Great Musk Tweets,” and a very special rendition of “Bawitdaba,” accompanied by Germany’s oldest Aryan string quartet.