Kaeleigh Banda
Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced in an April 23 statement that the university dropped Kehlani as the headlining performer for its annual Slope Day concert over expressing pro-Palestinian and alleged antisemitic sentiments.
Students at Cornell University and Ithaca College are organizing a Community Slope Day in response to Cornell dropping Kehlani as the headlining performer for Slope Day over alleged antisemitism. The event will start at 11 a.m. May 7 — a half an hour before the Slope Day concert.
As of April 30, organizers have raised over $4,800 through GoFundMe to help create the Community Slope Day. Cornell senior Hannah Devine-Rader said Atlanta-based rapper Nimstarr will perform at the event. They said organizers are still in the process of finding more local and non-local artists to perform at Community Slope Day.
“I think that it’s hard for people to maybe understand exactly what’s happening because we haven’t announced everything, but I just want to confirm that it is happening,” Devine-Rader said. “We’re not going to be able to get huge, big names that are the level of Kehlani, but we hope that that’s not the only reason people will come out. It is going to be very fun.”
Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced in an April 23 statement that the university dropped the R&B singer as the headlining performer for its annual Slope Day concert over expressing pro-Palestinian and alleged antisemitic sentiments.
“In the days since Kehlani was announced, I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt, and confused that Slope Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos, and on social media,” Kotlikoff wrote. “While any artist has the right in our country to express hateful views, Slope Day is about uniting our community, not dividing it.”
The music video for “Next 2 U” features Kehlani singing in front of the flag for Palestine and opens with the phrase “Long live the intifada.” Intifada is an Arabic word that generally translates to an uprising or a resistance. In the context of Israel and Palestine, the term is seen by some as a call for Palestinian liberation, while to others it is seen as a threat of violence against Jewish people.
As of April 30, the headlining performer that will replace Kehlani at Cornell’s Slope Day concert is yet to be announced.
Student organizers began to plan for the May 7 community concert after the April 23 statement from Kotlikoff. Ithaca College senior Ben Sterbenk said it is difficult to organize an event to the scale they are planning for Community Slope Day in just two weeks.
“The fact that it’s happening at all is a testament to how many people are so angered by this action, and how many people care about each other and want to build a better future for themselves and the people around them,” Sterbenk said.
Only Cornell students, staff, faculty and alumni are allowed to attend the annual Slope Day. Cornell spent $715,000 on Slope Day in 2024, more than the $650,000 the university contributes to the Ithaca City School District annually. Sterbenk said Community Slope Day will be open to everyone in the greater Ithaca community.
“We have the chance to make an alternative that not just fights for free expression … but as an opportunity to create community,” Sterbenk said. “To make this thing that we’ve not been able to go to, something we’re able to go to.”
Elliot Walsh — an Ithaca community member who finished his undergraduate studies at Cornell in Spring 2024 and received a master’s degree from Cornell in Fall 2024 — said Community Slope Day will continue to release updates and information on the event in the coming days through Instagram @communityslopeday.
“Yes, we want a party, we want to be able to celebrate the end of the semester,” Walsh said. “But we don’t want to do that if it means suppressing free speech [and] suppressing Palestinian speech.”