After the April 10 announcement that Kehlani was selected to headline Slope Day, President Michael Kotlikoff responded to mounting concerns at the Thursday Student Assembly meeting by stating, “It’s too late to secure another performer.”
The soulful R&B singer is set to perform on Slope Day, the annual campus-sponsored concert on Libe Slope after the last day of classes. In the week following the announcement, dissatisfaction has surfaced as students and parents have learned of the artists’ active political, specifically pro-Palestine, presence on social media.
Kolitkoff shared steps the administration had already taken to limit the artists’ political impact on campus, including a clause in her contract.
“We also altered that contract to make it clear that if there are any political events at the performance, there is full forfeit of the whole compensation,” Kotlikoff said. “We assured ourselves to the extent [possible] that this will be a successful event … without politics.”
Kehlani’s “Next 2 U” music video, released in June 2024, opens with a message that flashes “Long Live the Intifada.” The word “intifada” literally translates to “to shake off” in Arabic. The word intifada is often associated with two Palestinian uprisings.
The First Intifada took place in the late 1980s and consisted mostly of nonviolent protests such as boycotts and demonstrations. However, this period was also marked by less frequent armed attacks by Palestinians. Israel’s military response led to steep fatalities.
This led to the Second Intifada, which took place in the early 2000s. This uprising was incredibly deadly and is remembered for the slew of suicide bombings by Palestinians against Israeli civilians, including in buses and in restaurants. 4,300 died as a result of this uprising.
The music video features a Palestinian flag in the background for the second half, and the background dancers wear keffiyahs and wave Palestinian flags. The video, which has over 2.4 million views on YouTube, came just weeks after the singer posted strong political views against Israel on X.
“It’s f*ck Israel, it’s f*ck Zionism, and it’s also f*ck a lot of y’all too,” the singer said in a video expressing discontent with other music industry members not speaking up on behalf of Palestine.
In a Tiny Desk Concert performance in July 2024, Kehlani took a moment to share her support for Palestine again.
“I want to take a second to say free Palestine, free Congo, free Sudan, free Yemen, free Hawai‘i,” Kehlani said. “Beyond an end to the ceasefire, we need an end to the occupation.”
The artist’s statements about the conflict have been met with backlash from some Cornell parents in the Cornell University Parents Group on Facebook. One user wrote, “Given the threatened loss of $1 billion for anti-[Semitism], who at Cornell thought it would be a good idea to hire Kehlani for Slope Day?”
The New York Times broke the news of Cornell facing $1 billion in federal funding cuts on April 8. At the Thursday Student Assembly meeting, Kotlikoff said that the University still has “not gotten formal notification” of — and by extension, the reason for — the funding freeze.
Kotlikoff stated that the University was unaware of Kehlani’s political views when beginning negotiations for her to perform in October, but now it is “too late.”
“We found out about the social media of this performer roughly three weeks ago,” Kotlikoff said. “It’s too late to secure another performer that will be acceptable or appropriate for Slope Day.”
Kehlani’s performance follows a year of campus tensions surrounding the conflict in the Middle East and administrative crackdown on expressive activity.
Within the last month, 17 protestors were arrested or detained for protesting during a panel titled “Pathways to Peace,” featuring four speakers on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Five of 13 detained protestors declined their conditional case dismissals in Ithaca City Court on April 10.
On March 28, the University released the final version of its Expressive Activity Policy, which walked back some of the Interim Expressive Activity Policy’s most contentious points. The interim policy, which established guidelines and restrictions for expressive activity on campus, was implemented last Spring amid a rise in pro-Palestinian protests and increased national scrutiny over how Cornell responded to these demonstrations.
Kotlikoff claimed that Kehlani’s political beliefs hasn’t interfered with performances during her recent “Crash World Tour,” which concluded in March at Northeastern University.
“That was a sold-out concert that had no political events,” Kotlikoff said. “And by all accounts, a very successful performance.”
Correction, April 18, 5:15 p.m.: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Kotlikoff did not know about Kehlani’s political views until after the headliner was announced. The article has been updated to accurately reflect the timeline.
