Robert De Niro to deliver Lincoln’s civility warning at a Carnegie Hall benefit

NEW YORK (AP) — After a career defined by playing gangsters, an avenging taxi driver and a paranoid prize fighter, Robert De Niro will be issuing a call for civility, as first spoken by Abraham Lincoln.

The Oscar-winning actor is a featured performer for a Tuesday night event at Carnegie Hall, the 39th annual benefit concert for the nonprofit cultural organization Tibet House US. Others expected to be on stage include Elvis Costello, Maya Hawke and Laurie Anderson, who is serving as co-artistic director with composer Philip Glass.

De Niro is scheduled to read excerpts from Lincoln’s “Lyceum Address,” one of the future president’s earliest major speeches. Delivered by Lincoln in 1838 to a young men’s debating society in Springfield, Illinois, “The Lyceum Address” is a warning against mob violence and the dangers it creates for a democratic society.

Glass used Lincoln’s speech as inspiration for his Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln,” which had been scheduled to premiere at the Kennedy Center in June. But Glass announced in January he was calling off the performance, citing President Donald Trump’s ouster of the center’s leadership.

“The values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony,” Glass said in a statement at the time.

De Niro has been a prominent critic of Trump, who has made the center a focus of his war on so-called “woke” culture. The new board Trump appointed announced it would rename the venue the Trump Kennedy Center, a change that lawmakers and scholars say requires approval from Congress.

Last month, Trump announced the venue would shut down in July for construction he expects to last two years. Numerous artists besides Glass had withdrawn from planned appearances, including Renée Fleming, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bela Fleck.