SummerStage has canceled Kehlani‘s upcoming Central Park Pleasure live performance over strain from Mayor Eric Adams’ workplace, which claimed the occasion posed “safety considerations” as a result of singer’s pro-Palestine stance that led to Cornell College canceling a present of hers as properly final week.
In a letter addressed to Metropolis Parks Basis government director Heather Lubov, New York’s First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro wrote that “we have now safety considerations about this occasion, given the controversy surrounding Kehlani’s scheduled efficiency at Cornell College (inflicting College officers to cancel the looks), the safety precautions wanted for an occasion like this in Central Park, and the safety calls for all through the Metropolis for different Pleasure occasions throughout this similar time period.”
Mastro additionally urged in his letter that Kehlani’s present might’ve jeopardized the Parks Basis’s different SummerStage occasions as properly, writing that “if the Basis doesn’t promptly take steps to make sure public security, the Metropolis reserves all rights and cures with respect to the Basis’s license.”
Lubov wrote again to Mastro on Monday, confirming that the occasion was canceled. In a press release Monday afternoon, SummerStage referenced the priority from the mayor’s workplace and mentioned that “we strongly and emphatically imagine in inventive expression of every kind,” however additional added that “the security and safety of our company and artists is of the utmost significance and in gentle of those considerations, the live performance has been cancelled.”
“SummerStage is proud to be a platform for artists from around the globe to carry out and make arts accessible for all New Yorkers of their neighborhood parks,” the Parks Basis mentioned. “Whereas artists might select to specific their very own opinions, their views might not essentially be consultant of the pageant. SummerStage occasions are meant to deliver collectively all sectors of the New York Metropolis group and we stay up for welcoming extra company all through the summer time.”
Kehlani has been vocal in her help for Palestine prior to now, most notably in a music video for her 2024 tune “Subsequent 2 U.” That video featured Kehlani dancing and singing in entrance of a Palestinian flag and concluded with a message about “honoring the names of hundreds of deceased kids” who died in Gaza. The video opened with the message “lengthy dwell the intifada,” which teams just like the American Jewish Committee have known as antisemitic.
As Billboard reported, after the Cornell present was canceled, Kehlani posted a video on Instagram saying, “For the millionth time, that I’m not antisemitic nor anti-Jew.”
“I’m anti-genocide, I’m anti- the actions of the Israeli authorities, I’m anti- an extermination of a complete folks,” Kehlani mentioned. She took to Instagram following the Central Park present cancellation on Monday, writing that “I simply discovered that one out on Instagram, by the best way.”
“I’m so deeply grounded in my goal, my mission, my artwork, my contribution,” Kehlani wrote. “Again to this album. See you this weekend LA.”
