Latest news with #RhiannonGiddens
BBC News
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The flawless biscuit that took years to master
Acclaimed musician Rhiannon Giddens spent years perfecting a flawless recipe for the iconic Southern food. Now, a new festival reveals the similar journeys of Black music and cuisine. "Womp, womp, womp." That's the sound, according to Grammy Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens, of a sharp-rimmed glass cutting into just-right biscuit dough. Coming from Giddens' mouth, the timbre translates as a low note plucked from a double bass. Giddens is an American scholar-musician whose folk, country and blues music illuminates the African lineage of the banjo and celebrates the legacy of the Black string band. But in 2020, at the outset of pandemic lockdowns, Giddens found herself craving something seemingly less academic: biscuits. Not the crisp British variety that Americans call "cookies" and "crackers". Not crumbly, sweetened scones – those she could buy in abundance in her adopted city of Limerick, Ireland. No, what Giddens wanted were flaky, buttery biscuits with a definitive rise, the kind that are ubiquitous across the American South. Five years later, after tweaking her formula and method, Giddens has landed on what she believes is a near-perfect biscuit recipe. Her pandemic baking obsession even inspired her new Biscuits & Banjos music festival, which showcases the similarly winding journeys of Black music and food. During the pandemic, Giddens was collaborating with Italian musician Francesco Turrisi on the album They're Calling Me Home. "Francesco and I were thinking about the food that we couldn't get because we couldn't go home," said Giddens, who grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. "For me, that turned into, 'How do I make biscuits?'" Living in Ireland, Giddens had to rework basic elements of biscuit composition. How would Irish butter, with its higher fat content, impact the texture and rise? Which European flour would yield a comparable crumb? That's to say nothing of technique. "It turned into an obsession pretty quickly," she said. Giddens practiced until she arrived at a flawless variation with an adapted recipe from Southern Living magazine. First, she grates frozen Kerrygold butter into frozen, sifted White Lily flour (the colder the ingredients, the better). Next, she pours in thick buttermilk, and after a cursory stir, she dumps the wet mixture onto a heavily floured counter. "I start folding, turn, fold, turn, fold, turn, pat it out. I don't bother with a rolling pin," said Giddens. "I was doing four sets of folds, and then I threw in an extra one. The biscuits went poof." Then comes cutting the dough – the womp – before she places the biscuits cheek-to-cheek on pre-cut parchment paper. Meanwhile, there's a sheet pan heating in the oven at 475F, a critical step that yields crispy bottoms. At first, Giddens confessed, she often underbaked her dough. Now, she checks how done it is after 12 to 15 minutes by gently pressing her fingers on top and jiggling a nascent biscuit; too much movement signals a gummy centre. Giddens' ideal biscuit has a certain flakiness. It's sturdy enough to hold bacon without crumbling, and tender enough to enjoy with jam. During the years it took her to master biscuit making, They're Calling Me Home won a Grammy Award for best folk album. She also composed and sang libretto in Omar, an opera that earned the Pulitzer Prize, and played banjo and viola on Beyoncé's hit single, Texas Hold 'Em. Along the way, she started to see how biscuits integrated into her life's work of tracing the complex history of music. "Food and music have similar cultural markers. Like food, music moves with people, and it changes as people move. So, it made sense to connect them," said Giddens. "Biscuits and banjos happen to be two of my obsessions." The rise of US biscuits Biscuits, like the banjo, have a complex lineage. Their roots lie in dry, twice-baked breads, or rusks, that the British called "bisquites" after the Latin phrase panis bicoctus, or "twice-baked bread". But in the American South, particularly in the hands of Black cooks, they became soft, leavened symbols of class, skill and Southern identity. In the book The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence, Lizzie Collingham writes that biscuits were an "an indispensable tool of empire building". Indeed, these nonperishable breads sustained soldiers and sailors for millennia, and in the early 1600s, English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, survived on a supply of biscuits brought from the motherland. A distinctly Southern biscuit began to emerge in the 18th Century. On Royal Navy ships, tough, dry biscuits had earned the nickname "purser's nuts". But in finer settings on both sides of the Atlantic, bakers added sugar, citrus and spices. The Virginia Housewife, an 1824 cookbook by Mary Randolph, includes a recipe for Tavern Biscuits, whose ingredients included flour, sugar, butter, mace, nutmeg, brandy and milk. It also shared a recipe for beaten biscuits. "[Beaten biscuits] were the most common biscuit in the South," said Michael Twitty, a James Beard Award-winning food writer and historian. "The lore behind them is true. A Black child, normally a little boy, would sit there with the back of an axe or a club, and on a clean log, he would literally beat this dough over 1,000 times." The thin, crunchy beaten biscuit closely resembled what Americans consider a cracker, but this violent, repetitive thrashing – only possible with enslaved labour – produced a slight rise and delicate crumb onto which diners would drape slices of country ham. White flour was still a luxury in the antebellum South, and beaten biscuits were an edible stamp of wealth. "Biscuits have been a demarcation line in terms of class and race," said Toni Tipton-Martin, a food journalist and historian whose work includes the book The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks. "African Americans have traditionally been known for making cornmeal and more coarse grain breads. Wheat flour was not available in early America, and it was an expression of affluence to be able to make biscuits." However, it was chemical leavening agents that created the soft, layered Southern biscuit as we know it today. At first, bakers used saleratus (potassium bicarbonate) and soda (sodium bicarbonate). The buttermilk in Giddens' recipe dates to these early leavening agents, which required an acid to activate. Then in 1856, Eben Norton Horsford patented baking powder, officially giving rise to the poof of the Southern biscuit. As milling technology improved in the late 19th Century, Southern-grown soft winter wheat, (which was better for so-called "quick breads" than sturdy loaves) gained popularity. When flour prices dropped, biscuits became a marker of social mobility across racial lines, transforming a Sunday treat into an everyday staple. More like this:• How rice shaped the American South• The surprising origin of fried chicken• Pig ear sandwich: An iconic dish of the American South American food industrialised in the 20th Century, and so did biscuits. An unnamed Black cook for Pullman Company trains used a premade flour mix to produce biscuits on the fly; his work inspired Bisquick, the first commercial biscuit mix. In 1931, Lively Willoughby patented canned refrigerated biscuit dough. Biscuit diversity flourished, too, such as cathead biscuits and North Carolina's hoop cheese-filled variety. Bakers embraced efficient drop biscuits and airy angel biscuits, which use baking powder, baking soda and yeast. Biscuits had transformed from a seafaring staple to a luxury good made by enslaved cooks to a food of the working class. Farmers and labourers carried biscuits slathered with jam or stacked with ham in their lunchpails. Twitty recalled a line from South Carolinean journalist Ben Roberston's memoir, Red Hills and Cotton: "To fry chickens, to boil coffee, to boil rice and to make good biscuits were the four requirements we demanded of cooks." The year of Giddens' birth, biscuits broke into America's fast-food pantheon. In 1977, Bojangles, a fried chicken and biscuits counter, first opened in Charlotte, North Carolina; there are now 800 Bojangles across 17 states. The same year, a single location of Hardee's added ham and sausage biscuits to its breakfast menu. Across Hardee's franchises, workers bake more than 100 million biscuits annually. In the 1980s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds took biscuits nationwide. Buttered, dotted with blueberries, smothered in sausage gravy, split and sandwiched, biscuits had become wholly American without losing their Southern accent. "I see this food as graduated British, even if there's nothing like it in the British Isles, not even scones. You can't find them in Africa," said Twitty. "So they're this combination of all those different streams and elements that make America what it is." Food and music as culture With Biscuits & Banjos, Giddens wanted to create a festival that would build community and inspire cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the three-day event in Durham, North Carolina (25-27 April) brought together Black musicians, activists, historians and chefs. Her Grammy-winning band, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, reunited for the first time in a decade, performing songs from acclaimed African American fiddler Joe Thompson and guitarist Etta Baker. New Dangerfield, a Black string band of Giddens acolytes, played a sweet and earnest New Orleans waltz, while Niwel Tsumbu connected the musical traditions of his native Congo to the American South. By day, festival-goers ate biscuits from restaurants on a downtown Durham biscuit trail and bought tote bags that read: "Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit". They also gathered in an armoury, which had held a square dance the night before, for a talk with Tipton-Martin, Twitty and Dr Cynthia Greenlee on biscuit history and the contributions of Black cooks to one of the US South's most iconic baked goods. Giddens hopes to stage the festival again in Durham in 2026, creating a space where food and music continue to challenge narratives, uplift Black stories and contribute new ideas to storied traditions. "Food and music are such a great way to talk about culture," says Giddens. "They're disarming. They're innocent. They are shaped by the forces around them, whether that's political or cultural. The more we can understand that, I think, the more we can understand ourselves." Rhiannon Giddens' "They're Biscuits, Not Scones" recipeAdapted from Southern Living magazineMakes 10-12 biscuits Method Step 1Measure a piece of parchment paper to fit your sheet pan; be sure to make it longer but exactly as wide, so you can use the overhang to lift the sheet when there are biscuits on top. Set 2Sift the flour into a bowl, then grate in the frozen butter (I use a box grater, the large holes side). Toss together briefly (but no need to work the butter into the dough). Put in the freezer. Step 3 While the bowl is in the freezer, preheat the oven to 475F. If you have an electric oven, put the pan in the oven and heat it up without the parchment paper. If you have a gas oven, you can keep the pan out of the oven and place the parchment paper in it. This is all in pursuit of nice crispy bottoms. Step 4 Make a well in the middle of the butter/flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Always have more on hand in case you need it – I usually have to add a bit. Stir until it starts to come together. It should be pretty sticky and a bit wet. Turn it out onto a well-floured surface and pat it into a rectangle (you can use a rolling pin if it helps). Step 5 Fold the dough in thirds like a letter and flatten out, then turn and do it again in the other direction. Do this whole process at least once more, for a total of 4 sets of folds. This is what takes the most experience; you'll eventually learn how much handling is enough. Aim for handling less, not more. Step 6 Roll or pat out and start cutting your biscuits; use a biscuit cutter or a glass and be careful not to twist (that is a myth that will end up actually curtailing your biscuit's rise). If the dough is in that sweet spot of not too wet but not too worked, the cutter will not stick to the dough, and if it's a glass it will make a nice little "womp" sound. Step 7Place the biscuits on the parchment paper in a honeycomb pattern so that there are no spaces. This will help the biscuits rise. If you like biscuits that are crispy all around and not as tall, you can place them with space around them or only touching on the sides. Step 8 Move the biscuit-laden parchment with the overhang onto the pan, this will take practice. You may brush melted butter on top of the biscuits at this point. Step 9 Bake at 475F for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. You can feel they are done by shaking one with your fingertip on top; if they are too moveable, they aren't quite set. Step 10 Place them in a basket lined with a tea towel and cover; they will stay nice and moist this way. Put the leftovers straight into the fridge to be reheated in the oven when ready. -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
They Came to See a Band Reunion. And Eat Biscuits.
Not long ago, Rhiannon Giddens knew every Black string musician. The dedicated few were largely collaborators and colleagues, many of whom met a generation ago at the landmark Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, N.C. Giddens, the folk musician and recipient of all the accolades (Grammys, a Pulitzer, a MacArthur), no longer knows everyone who followed her path. That expansion, she figured, was reason to celebrate. She did so the last weekend of April at her inaugural Biscuits & Banjos Festival in Durham, N.C., a jamboree featuring twangy banjos, groovy basses, clickety bones and, yes, the devouring of many flaky, buttery biscuits. The festival culminated in a reunion by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the Black string band led by Giddens, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson. The group met at the Boone gathering, taking apprenticeship under the old-time fiddle player Joe Thompson. The Grammy-winning band resuscitated styles like Piedmont string music, presenting them to a broader audience. 'It was just time to come back together and to say, 'Hey, we did a thing,'' Giddens said. 'Let's celebrate being a part of a chain, because when we came out, there was a lot of weight on us.' She added: 'Now we're a link in the chain. We're not the end of the chain.' The idea for the festival's titular pairing came during the pandemic. Giddens was locked down at home in Ireland, where she has lived since 2018. She did not have easy access to comfort food like when she made her routine trips back to the United States. She studied cooking, watching series like 'High on the Hog.' 'That was so instrumental in breaking open the idea of what soul food is and what Southern food is, and how integral the African American experience is to it,' Giddens said. 'It felt very similar to the work that I was doing with the banjo and country music and old-time music — this idea of culture being expressed through something that people do every day.' Several local restaurants submitted entries for the festival's golden biscuit award. Melanie Wilkerson, the executive chef at the Counting House Restaurant, won with her 'angel' biscuit, consisting of a yeast and brioche base. She learned how to make them from her grandmother. 'Biscuits are understated, but understood depending on where you come from,' said Wilkerson, a Durham native. The festival's lineup was cross-generational. The influential blues singer Taj Mahal, an octogenarian, performed with Leyla McCalla, a former cellist for the Chocolate Drops. 'It's nice to see the children of blues,' Mahal said. 'It's nice to be called a child still,' answered McCalla, who's 39. 'When you get to be this age, 65 or 70 is a child,' Mahal retorted. The bassist Christian McBride performed with the North Carolina Central University Jazz Ensemble 1. 'For the lineup to be so melanated, it feels groundbreaking,' said Lillian Werbin, the co-owner of Lansing's Elderly Instruments, who traveled to Durham with her staff and about 20 banjos for sale. 'She's saying that she's the middle of the link, but this is a starting point. This is like the beginning of what could be even bigger and more established and it can go for generations.' 'I've never seen that many Black people on the stage together playing this music, and it's just really exciting to see this music, the resurgence, the renewal, the rebirth of it,' said Dr. Angela M. Wellman, the founder of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music in California, after she finished watching the reunion concert. Giddens has gone on to other projects post-Chocolate Drops. In just the past year or so, she was featured on Beyoncé's 'Texas Hold 'Em,' the lead single from 'Cowboy Carter,' and on the soundtrack to Ryan Coogler's movie 'Sinners.' She recently moved her show away from the Kennedy Center in May because of the new administration's upheaval. 'I feel like the most important thing to get out of that is that we need to support each other as long as you think about what you're doing and you have an intentionality,' she said. Giddens was omnipresent throughout the weekend. She was a judge in the biscuit competition. She played banjo during a Friday night square dance, packed with people with wide smiles, before hopping off the stage, barefoot, to participate in the line dance. 'This is the idea of cultural renaissance,' Giddens said. 'This is cultural excavation. It just happens some people are doing it with music. Some people with food. Some people are doing it in literature. It's a way so that we could all kind of draw strength from each other.'
Miami Herald
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Rhiannon Giddens & the Old-Time Revue bring American Roots to the bandshell
When a musician of Rhiannon Giddens' stature comes to perform in your town for the first time, a celebration is in order. So, hey, Miami, how about a good, old-fashioned porch party? The MacArthur 'genius grant-,' Pulitzer Prize-, Grammy-winning Giddens proposes just that with her Friday concert at the Miami Beach Bandshell. Rhiannon Giddens & the Old-Time Revue will play the kind of foot-stomping, hand-clapping, heart-lifting music that first brought her to prominence nearly two decades ago as a founding member of the Black string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. A North Carolina native, Giddens began her career as an opera singer, studying at the Oberlin College and Conservatory. Degree in hand and back in her home state, her musical path took a 90-degree turn when she met 86-year-old Joe Thompson, one of the last living repositories of Carolina Piedmont music. He became her mentor. It wasn't long before Giddens and fellow Thompson acolytes Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons had formed the Chocolate Drops, and a whole genre of American music that had been on life support was revived. In 2011, their second album 'Genuine Negro Jig,' garnered the group a Grammy, and the accolades for Giddens' gifts have not stopped since. If Giddens' musical journey has been full of twists and turns, it may be because her artistic boldness is only matched by her curiosity. The kind of person that says 'yes' first then thinks about it later, every time she has a creative itch, it seems like she can't help but scratch it. For years Giddens has made her home in Ireland, and in the current season of the PBS series 'My Music with Rhiannon Giddens,' she explores the melodies and rhythms of the island, singing in Gaelic on some of the tunes. And although she hasn't taken a single class in composition, a few years back she decided that she would try her hand at composing an opera. Giddens and Michael Abel cowrote 'Omar' about a Muslim African scholar who was enslaved in North Carolina. It garnered its two creators a Pulitzer. She was chosen to succeed Yo-Yo Ma as a director of the Silkroad Ensemble. Under her tutelage, they put out an album in 2024 highlighting the music of the Native American and immigrant groups who built the Transcontinental Railroad. With as many musical miles beneath her feet as those lines of railroad track, Giddens reveals in a telephone interview what brought her back around to her roots in the folk music of the Carolinas. 'Well, I guess kind of thinking back, it's coming on the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Black banjo gathering that kind of brought us together and, you know, I'm thinking about how that's how everything started for me and wanting to kind of pay respect to that,' she says. The style of music Giddens and her band will be playing at the Miami Beach Bandshell emerged from people living through hard times and coming together to create connections, to forge community. If they could do it, Giddens seems to say, so might we. 'It's a very AI world right now and this music, this old-time music, made by people—poor people, you know—and made in community, is kind of like, for me, like anti-AI. I mean it's just about as real as you want to get. So, I thought, 'Man, it'd be really nice to have a tour kind of really leaning into that.'' For the musician, it just felt like time, she says. 'You know, 'Let's give the drums a rest for a second and the electric instruments, let's just let them go and sit down for a second and really just focus on a string band.' ' This tour is her way of sharing a piece of our history that could have been forgotten, and it is that idea, not of grandstanding, but of coming together through music to strengthen the ties that bind us—no matter our ethnicity. Giddens may beguile listeners with her astonishing voice, but she isn't one to hog the limelight. 'I love backing up people,' she says, adding that the banjo is great for that. 'I just, I really love supporting someone else who's like killing it,' she says. She gets to do that with Robinson. 'What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow?,' the pair's first album since recording with the Chocolate Drops, came out on Friday, April 18. Fittingly, it was recorded outdoors, with birdsong included. Giddens is grateful to be once again touring and sharing a stage with a man she calls 'just a pure musician.' 'He's not doing any of it for fame or, you know, any of that stuff. Applause? He does not care,' she says. 'There's something about me and Justin starting our journey together in our 20s, you know, 20 years ago… Playing fiddle and banjo together, it just feels really great,' she says. 'He and I play together like we don't play together with anybody else.' As with Robinson, her ties with the other musicians in the Old-Time Revue—multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, his daughter, guitarist Amelia Powell, bassist Jason Sypher, and Giddens' nephew, bones player and rapper Demeanor—have developed over years of playing together. 'These are blood family and chosen family, and it felt really important to tour this music with that kind of group…. I feel like we represent a lot of where American music came from,' says Giddens. The tunes they will play in concert honor the diversity of their heritages: Cajun and Creole, Blues, four-part harmony and, of course, old-time Carolina string music. 'Oh, it's going to be all the things,' she says. 'It'll be like working class acoustic music, basically… That's what we're going to be playing.' If you go: WHAT: Rhiannon Giddens & the Old-Time Revue, presented by the Rhythm Foundation. Opening set by Quiana Major. WHERE: Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday; doors open at 7 p.m. COST: $53.46, general admission; $496.46, club level (includes up to 6 tickets) INFORMATION: is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don't miss a story at
New York Times
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Rhiannon Giddens Is Latest to Cancel at Kennedy Center After Trump's Takeover
Artists are continuing to cancel engagements at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington after it was taken over by President Trump, who replaced board members, made himself chairman and installed a new president. Rhiannon Giddens, the singer, songwriter, banjo player and fiddler who has won Grammy Awards, a MacArthur 'genius grant' and a Pulitzer Prize, became the latest to withdraw. She wrote on social media that her appearance there had been booked 'long before the current administration decided to take over this previously bipartisan institution.' Mr. Trump made himself chairman of the center this month, a few days after he purged the board of Biden appointees. The new board, stacked with Trump loyalists, elected Mr. Trump chairman and fired the Kennedy Center's longtime president, Deborah F. Rutter. The board named Richard Grenell, who was ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration, president. Here's a look at the stars who have resigned from the Kennedy Center or canceled shows in the wake of Mr. Trump's takeover: Rhiannon Giddens In a statement shared on Instagram on Tuesday, Ms. Giddens said that she was canceling her sold-out show at the Kennedy Center scheduled for May 11 and would instead perform on the same day at the Anthem, another venue in Washington. 'I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy Center with the change in programming direction forced on the institution by this new board,' she wrote, adding that she would not judge any artist who chooses to go on with a show. 'It's a highly difficult situation for artists right now and everyone has to do what makes the most sense for them in the moment.' Issa Rae Ms. Rae, the actress, writer and comedian, announced on social media that she was canceling an upcoming engagement at the Kennedy Center, 'An Evening With Issa Rae.' She said that tickets would be refunded. 'Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I've decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,' she wrote on Instagram. Renée Fleming The renowned soprano said that she would step down as an artistic adviser to the Kennedy Center. In a statement, she did not mention Mr. Trump but praised David M. Rubenstein, the center's ousted chairman, and Ms. Rutter, and said that 'out of respect, I think it right to depart as well.' 'I've treasured the bipartisan support for this institution as a beacon of America at our best,' she added. 'I hope the Kennedy Center continues to flourish and serve the passionate and diverse audience in our nation's capital and across the country.' Ms. Fleming is still scheduled to perform at a Kennedy Center concert in May celebrating American composers, including Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and Margaret Bonds. The concert is presented by Washington National Opera. Ben Folds The singer and songwriter said he would resign his post as an adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, which is overseen by the Kennedy Center. 'Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic adviser to the N.S.O.,' Mr. Folds wrote on Instagram. 'Mostly, and above all, I will miss the musicians of our nation's symphony orchestra — just the best!' Shonda Rhimes Ms. Rhimes, a famed television producer and writer, resigned as treasurer of the Kennedy Center's board, a spokeswoman for Ms. Rhimes said. On Wednesday evening, Ms. Rhimes posted a quote from John F. Kennedy on Instagram: 'If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.' Low Cut Connie Adam Weiner of the rock band Low Cut Connie said he was canceling an appearance at the Kennedy Center in March. 'Upon learning that this institution that has run nonpartisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime, I decided I will not perform there,' he wrote on social media. Mr. Weiner said that his friends and fans would be 'directly negatively affected by this administration's policies and messaging.' He said he would not return to the Kennedy Center until it embraced a 'nonpartisan community-building model of arts programming."
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Singer-musician Rhiannon Giddens calls off Kennedy Center show, citing Trump takeover
NEW YORK (AP) — Award-winning singer-musician Rhiannon Giddens has become the latest artist to call off an appearance at the Kennedy Center, which has been in upheaval since President Donald Trump forced out the center's leadership and was elected chair of the board of trustees. Trump's takeover of the center is part of his broad campaign against 'woke' culture. 'I have decided to cancel my show at The Kennedy Center on May 11, 2025 and move it to The Anthem,' she wrote on social media, referring to a separate Washington, D.C. venue. 'The Kennedy Center show was booked long before the current administration decided to take over this previously non-political institution.' See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Giddens is an eclectic roots music performer known for co-founding the Carolina Chocolate Drops and for such collaborations with Francesco Turrisi as the Grammy winning 'They're Calling Me Home.' In 2022, she helped write the Pulitzer Prize winning opera 'Omar.' She is also a recipient of a MacArthur 'Genius' grant. Actor Issa Rae, author Louise Penny and the rock band Low Cut Connie also have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center events. Singer-songwriter Victoria Clark went ahead with her Feb. 15 show, but on stage wore a T-shirt reading 'ANTI TRUMP AF.' Supported by government money and private donations and attracting millions of visitors each year, the Kennedy Center is a 100-foot high complex featuring a concert hall, opera house and theater, along with a lecture hall, meeting spaces and a 'Millennium Stage' that has been the site for free shows. Until Trump in his first term, presidents have routinely attended the honors ceremony, even in the presence of artists who disagreed with them politically.
