A pro-Palestine singer’s upcoming show in Central Park’s SummerStage has been canceled due to pressure from City Hall. Kehlani (she/they), a popular R&B singer whose top tracks have hundreds of millions of listens on Spotify, was set to perform on June 26 as part of the city’s decades-running concert series, until First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro sent a letter to the City Parks Foundation–the nonprofit that organizes SummerStage in collaboration with Live Nation–citing “security concerns” and threatening the Foundation’s license to put up shows in the future.
It is the second Kehlani show to be canceled in as many weeks, with Cornell University scrapping their performance as part of an annual concert on their campus after a student group named Cornellians for Israel called on the school to have them replaced.
Kehlani has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which most international human rights organizations have deemed a genocide. A music video released last year for her track “Next 2 U” opens with the words “Long Live the Intifada” on screen, and features the singer dancing among Palestinian flags and wearing clothes that incorporate keffiyehs. At the time, Kehlani said on social media that they were “terrified” about being vocal on the matter but that their terror was “paired with the crippling wonder of what music is appropriate to drop during the most historical tragedies of our generation.”
In his letter to the City Parks Foundation Executive Director Heather Lubov, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro pointed to the canceled Cornell concert as a cause for concern. “We write to advise you that we have security concerns about this event, given the controversy surrounding Kehlani’s scheduled performance at Cornell University (causing University officials to cancel the appearance), the security precautions needed for an event like this in Central Park, and the security demands throughout the City for other Pride events during this same period of time,” he wrote in the letter dated May 5, adding that “if the foundation does not promptly take steps to ensure public safety, the city reserves all rights and remedies to the foundation’s license.”
The Parks Foundation followed with a statement on social media on Monday evening, which acknowledged the communication from the Mayor’s Office, stating in part: “We strongly and emphatically believe in artistic expression of all kinds. However, the safety and security of our guests and artists is of the utmost importance, and in light of these concerns, the concert has been canceled.” No mention was made of Mastro’s threat to the foundation’s license.
“I just found out about that one on Instagram by the way,” Kehlani said in an Instagram story reposting the Parks Foundation’s statement.
