How artists and musicians are responding to Trump’s 2nd term

Amna Nawaz:

At a surprise New York film festival performance last night, rock legend Bruce Springsteen publicly expressed concern for the political climate in the country, saying — quote — “We’re living through particularly dangerous times.”

But as the Trump administration increasingly targets free speech and the arts, musicians and artists of all kinds are facing a difficult decision, whether to speak out or keep their heads down.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown looks at some of what is and isn’t happening for our series Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy as part of our Canvas coverage.

Patrick Martinez, Artist:

I’m wanting to represent the time that we’re living in and not look away.

Jeffrey Brown:

Patrick Martinez is a multimedia artist born, trained and making art in Los Angeles, who started telling the story of the America he lives in well before Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

Patrick Martinez:

A lot of my work deals with police brutality, police murder. I think that my upbringing informs my choices. When I choose to paint the landscape, I take objects and materials that are from areas that are discounted.

When I produce work, a lot of that messaging tends to put me in a light that people will label me an activist, but I’m more just kind of paying attention.

Jeffrey Brown:

These days, Martinez’s work is exhibited in major museums, including the Whitney in New York and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

But when President Trump ordered ICE raids in his community and the National Guard to Los Angeles, Martinez responded, photographing his neon works, printing them on corrugated plastic and handing them out at protests.

Patrick Martinez:

It’s self-preservation to be making this work, right? But it also shows you what I thought about what was happening in these times. And me sharing it helps people cope with everything that they’re kind of going through right now. And if they don’t have the words to kind of come up with, they can use my work as a placeholder.

Jeffrey Brown:

But while some individual artists are addressing the moment, the larger art and museum worlds have mostly avoided directly confronting the Trump administration.

Robin Pogrebin is a culture reporter for The New York Times.

Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times:

You see a kind of — much more of a cowed, capitulating stance on the part of the art world, I think a sense of resignation. It may be just something they have to hunker down and weather for the next four years under Trump. You have seen a few isolated examples.

Amy Sherald is a prominent artist who upon hearing that one of her paintings was possibly going to be pulled by the Smithsonian board from a upcoming show at the National Portrait Gallery, decided to cancel the entire exhibition. That was a very bold move. It’s an example of an artist who can kind of afford to take that risk. She is a very solid success.

Jeffrey Brown:

The Smithsonian, for the record, says it was adding a video to accompany a painting, not taking the painting out of the exhibit.

Bruce Springsteen, Musician:

The American that I love, the American that I have sung to you now…

Jeffrey Brown:

Among prominent musicians who’ve spoken or sung their protest, Bruce Springsteen…

Bruce Springsteen:

… is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.

(Cheering)

Jeffrey Brown:

… whose roar of words with Donald Trump dates back to his first term and was reignited this year by the rock star while on tour in Europe.

The back-and-forth got so heated, the president threatened to investigate Springsteen and Beyonce for appearances they made on the 2024 campaign trail for his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.

And Sheryl Crow, whose song “The New Normal,” she said, is a response to a political moment she describes as so unbelievably bizarre.

Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, long known for her activism, is still at it with new urgency, she says. But she also wonders why the music world has been mostly quiet.

Ani DiFranco, Musician:

Why aren’t there more? Why isn’t protest music the top of the pops like it was in other eras of American political turmoil and change and evolution.

I think one thing that we are all suffering from is fatigue, crisis fatigue and doom fatigue.

Manuel Oliver, Activist:

Tell me now what happened.

Jeffrey Brown:

Manuel Oliver was thrust into the worlds of art and theater after the killing of his 17-year-old son, Joaquin, in the mass shooting in Parkland Florida on Valentine’s Day 2018.

Manuel Oliver:

In order to scream out the urgency of fixing what happened to Joaquin, I found art as an excellent way of sending that message. And that could be painting sculptures and in this case theater.

What happened on Joaquin’s side?

Jeffrey Brown:

In 2019, Oliver produced the first version of his one-man play, “Guac.” In it, he tells the story of Joaquin’s vibrant, but short life, his horrific murder, and Oliver’s fight to honor his son through advocacy for gun reform.

Manuel Oliver:

He is the one that is motivating us and, I will prove it to you.

Jeffrey Brown:

The play is always evolving, and so when ICE deportations of undocumented migrants escalated, Oliver felt the need to respond. One such addition, a tweet by his son written shortly before he was killed that Oliver believes is especially relevant today.

In the post, Joaquin calls out President Trump’s first-term policy of separating undocumented migrant families.

Manuel Oliver:

We thought that it was very important that if we’re talking about Joaquin, we should add Joaquin’s own words, and so people will understand this as an issue that Joaquin would be really mad about.

Jeffrey Brown:

Another change reflects the moment for Manuel Oliver himself as a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Venezuela.

Manuel Oliver:

I’m one of those guys that has been targeted as criminals and bad hombres. So, on the play, I had a line.

I won’t be deported for doing this (expletive deleted).

I correct myself now, which I didn’t before. Like, wait a minute, I am an American citizen, but I still can be deported. And that’s a new reality.

Sam Jay, Comedian:

He didn’t even get in office yet, he was like, yes, we taking Canada.

(Laughter)

Sam Jay:

And I was like, I kind of agree with that.

Jeffrey Brown:

Sam Jay, a former writer for “Saturday Night Live” with her own HBO and Netflix specials, has long used comedy to make sense of current events.

Sam Jay:

I think mainly my place is to be honest, to tell my truth from my perspective. I tend not to lean right or left in anything that I say or do. And I kind of like to live in the gray.

Jeffrey Brown:

Jay’s new stand-up show is titled “We the People,” tackling subjects such as race and social media in America to try to figure out why the country is so divided.

Sam Jay:

I felt like the conversation was kind of stuck as far as where we are as Americans, where we’re going as this democracy.

Jeffrey Brown:

And how does comedy do that in ways that other art forms don’t?

Sam Jay:

I think because comedy is kind of main-veining art in a little bit of a way. It’s like a direct conversation.

Jimmy Kimmel, Host, “Jimmy Kimmel Live”: We hit some new lows over the weekend.

Jeffrey Brown:

Late-night comedy, of course, has become the stuff of 24-hour news, with the short-lived suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show and the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s.

Do you think that will impact other comedians?

Sam Jay:

I mean, I don’t think there’s a way it won’t. Does it lean towards people getting more active and going like, hey, something scary is going on, or do people duck and hide?

Jeffrey Brown:

What about for you?

Sam Jay:

I’m going to just keep doing my shows and saying what I believe in and getting on stage for as long as I’m allowed to do that.

Jeffrey Brown:

One prominent player in all this still…

Actor:

A dictator from the Middle East. Oh, relax, guy.

Jeffrey Brown:

… “South Park,” which has garnered attention and eyeballs with its skewering of President Trump since it began its 27th season this summer. What’s next for the arts world as a whole?

The New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin:

Robin Pogrebin:

This is a new day we’re living in, where even those who would seem to be empowered and independent of Trump just don’t want to poke that bear. What I’m wondering is whether or not this will have some really lasting effects that will have to be built back from, whether they will feel more cautious going forward.

Sam Jay:

It’s stressful, bro.

Jeffrey Brown:

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown.

Sam Jay:

This is on us, and when I say us, I mean…

Amna Nawaz:

Another terrific report from Jeff Brown there.