A former employee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts who identifies as a queer Black woman says her managers subjected her to discrimination, created a hostile work environment, and retaliated against her when she complained.
Autumn Metcalf, who began working in the subscriptions office of the performing arts complex in May 2022, says her white manager, Stephanie Atkinson, appeared annoyed whenever Metcalf spoke and often acted hostile toward her but was generally cordial toward colleagues who were not Black women.
Atkinson frequently patrolled Metcalf’s workspace, hovering near and peering into her cubicle. She also took an unusual interest in a 9-by-12-inch dry-erase board she had hung outside her cubicle, according to her complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Oct. 27 and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
The whiteboard featured jokes and catchphrases from movies and TV shows, including “The Twilight Zone,” and quotes from civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Baldwin.
In March of 2025, Metcalf says, Atkinson instructed her to put the whiteboard inside her cubicle, which she did. But the next day, Carissa Helmer, a senior manager, gave her a verbal warning about the “negative” quotes and threatened insubordination if she didn’t remove it altogether.
Metcalf complied, “even though other staff members, who were not queer Black women, had similar displays and personal items in their cubicles without interference,” the complaint says.
One co-worker cited in the lawsuit, Ellen Schiavone, had printouts in her cubicle that she self-described in an affidavit as “sarcastic and dark humor quotes,” including one that read, “DOES ANYONE KNOW OF A GOOD JOB FOR SOMEONE THAT HATES PEOPLE?” that did not give rise to the level of scrutiny that Metcalf received, the lawsuit alleges.
Metcalf raised concerns about what she viewed as racially disparate treatment with her local union representative in mid-July 2025. She also requested a meeting with Atkinson to discuss her concerns, but the center declined through its legal counsel.
The next day, Helmer accused Metcalf of being away from her desk “for approximately 25 minutes” and warned that she could face “further progressive discipline.”
The lawsuit argues that other employees at the center routinely left their workstations for comparable or longer periods without facing such warnings.
By July 30, 2025, Metcalf’s union rep had managed to convene a meeting with Atkinson, the Kennedy Center’s associate general counsel Laura Hagan, and a marketing manager, which “transformed into a disciplinary proceeding” against Metcalf and mischaracterized her dry-erase board as “threatening” toward Atkinson.
The lawsuit says that characterization draws on the racist stereotype that Black women are threatening and violent.
After that, Metcalf faced heightened scrutiny from her managers, who monitored her whereabouts and movements in the office, including her arrival and departure times and the duration of her bathroom breaks, which Metcalf called “a humiliating intrusion.”
Her white co-workers told the union representative that management didn’t surveil them the way it did Metcalf.
Schiavone wrote, “It seems like management has been hyper-focused on [Metcalf] lately. We all step away from our desks from time to time, sometimes for a minute, sometimes for over 10 minutes, but I’ve never received an email from management questioning why I stepped away, and I know [Metcalf] has.”
The complaint chronicles other uncomfortable interactions Metcalf had with her managers, including one incident on Oct. 9, 2025, when Atkinson allegedly entered her cubicle uninvited and “began lamenting about recent departures of Black employees” from the Kennedy Center, including a marketing manager whom she referred to through tears as “another Black woman gone.”
The complaint alleges that Atkinson’s conduct reflected an expectation that Metcalf would provide her with emotional support and that she viewed Metcalf “as a ‘mammy,’ the racist stereotype that Black women will readily serve as emotional caretakers for white people without reciprocity and without regard for the woman’s own emotional needs.”
Later that month, Metcalf’s managers wrote her up for being 17 minutes late, which she disputed.
In November 2025, she alleges Derek Younger, the director of sales and ticketing services, falsely accused her of being “loud” and “disrespectful” after misunderstanding a neutral verbal exchange she had with a mail carrier while sitting at the customer service window.
She claims Younger stood over her as she sat at the window and berated her, angrily telling her, “You won’t be getting paid for the rest of the day and tomorrow.” She alleges that Younger then followed through and docked her pay.
A co-worker of Metcalf, Timothy Sauline, who witnessed Younger’s angry outburst later called his conduct “an escalation from 1 to a million that was unjustified. I don’t know what [Metcalf] was doing in the window, but whatever it was, [she] should have been given more time to explain herself before essentially kicking her out of the office with no explanation.”
Upon returning from her day-and-a-half suspension on Nov. 20, 2025, Metcalf received a “final warning” and a 14-day suspension without pay over what the complaint describes as “fabricated attendance/timekeeping issues.”
That same day, security escorted her from the building as her co-workers watched, an experience she described as unnecessary and humiliating.
On Dec. 4, 2025, the day she was scheduled to return to work, Metcalf resigned, stating that management had created “an unbearable hostile work environment, based on my intersecting identity as a queer, Black woman that no reasonable person would tolerate.”
The lawsuit alleges that after Metcalf resigned, the center’s associate general counsel, Hagan, “dismissed” her workplace discrimination concerns and obstructed her efforts to file a formal equal opportunity complaint with the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Equal Employment and Supplier Diversity, leaving her to pursue the matter through a private lawsuit.
The Kennedy Center, as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution, is a federal agency.
Metcalf maintains that she was qualified for her position and performed her duties satisfactorily. Her lawsuit alleges that the Kennedy Center discriminated against her based on her intersecting identities as a queer Black woman, subjected her to a hostile work environment, and retaliated against her for reporting her managers’ conduct and what she described as disparate treatment, in violation of federal civil rights law.
As a result of her mistreatment and the adverse actions taken against her, Metcalf says she suffered lost wages, emotional distress, mental anguish, embarrassment, stress, anxiety, and reputational harm.
She seeks a jury trial to determine compensatory damages, back pay for all lost wages and benefits, expungement of all discriminatory disciplinary actions recorded in her personnel file, and legal costs.
The Kennedy Center has not yet filed a response in federal court. Federal agencies typically have 60 days after service of a complaint and summons to respond.
