White leftists at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York City have canceled an upcoming BLEXIT event featuring Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, and Brandon Tatum, among others, claiming the Black conservative group “provides a platform for hate speech.” But what the venue said publicly is very different from what it privately said to BLEXIT, the organization’s director told Breitbart News.
“June 17th Blexit event no longer taking place at Music Hall of Williamsburg,” the Music Hall of Williamsburg announced in social media posts on Wednesday.
“The event organizers presented themselves as ‘a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of urban and minority communities’ when they requested to rent the venue,” the Music Hall of Williamsburg continued in its statement.
“It has become abundantly clear to us that in actuality this organization provides a platform for hate speech and homophobia, which The Bowery Presents will not tolerate, and we have canceled their rental contract,” the venue added. “This event will Not take place in our venue.”
Pierre Wilson, director of BLEXIT, however, told Breitbart News that the music hall’s public statement is very different from what the venue privately told the conservative group.
Wilson explained that when booking the event, BLEXIT organizers had communicated with a woman who “let us know straight up that she leans a little bit left,” but insisted that she “was 100 percent supportive of providing a platform for everyone” and said that she believed “all voices should be heard.”
A few weeks before signing the contract with the music hall, the woman and her higher ups wanted to learn more about BLEXIT, so “we sent them a couple shows and some YouTube videos,” Wilson said.
“They knew exactly who we were coming in,” the BLEXIT director added. “So everything was good, we signed a contract.”
But last Friday, the Music Hall of Williamsburg employee reached out to BLEXIT again to say that she was concerned with a critical Twitter post and an anti-BLEXIT flyer that was being circulated, Wilson said.
At that time, the music hall employee insisted that her only concern was making sure security was tight, so she talked with Turning Point USA’s head of security.
“The conversation went well, and she felt good about security,” Wilson told Breitbart News.
But on Wednesday, the music hall told BLEXIT that they were canceling the event, which had been scheduled for Saturday.
Venue staffers told BLEXIT that they were pulling out of the event because they were being pressured to do so by staff and other artists who had contacted them.
Immediately after that, the Music Hall of Williamsburg took to social media to release a public statement attacking and smearing the Black conservative organization.
“I’m shocked that the Music Hall of Williamsburg, despite claiming to value diverse voices, would cancel an group primarily composed of Black Americans, simply because we have differing perspectives on how Black people should think,” Wilson told Breitbart News.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised that the venue said one thing in private, that they were worried about staff safety, but then went on social media to publicly proclaim they were making a stand against ‘hate.’ That’s a lie,” the BLEXIT director added. “They knew exactly who we were and exactly what we believe when we booked the venue.”
“Cancelling this event is the real example of hate and intolerance,” Wilson said. “We welcome all people at BLEXIT. This action represents a troubling example of cancel culture at its worst. It’s simply remarkable how much energy and effort New York City liberals put in to preventing Black and brown Americans from hearing a different point of view.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also took to social media to lambast the white liberals who canceled black conservative voices.
Outrageous!!
A bunch of white liberal New Yorkers just cancelled a BLEXIT/TPUSA venue for an event featuring Brandon Tatum, Candace Owens, Anthony, Davis, and Yoenmi Park—3 black Americans and 1 North Korean defector—with less than three days notice.
Our event will go on AS…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 16, 2023
The BLEXIT event will instead be held at the Triplex LIC on Saturday.
WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED. See you Saturday, New York! pic.twitter.com/1RNfJ93Fyg
— BLEXIT (@BLEXIT) June 16, 2023
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