There will no longer be a theater named after Dave Chappelle at his alma mater. On Monday night, Chappelle declined to have a student theater at Duke Ellington School of the Arts bear his name amid controversy surrounding his jokes about the LGBTQ community in his Netflix special The Closer.
Per The Washington Post, the Washington D.C. public school was set to unveil the Dave Chappelle Theater during a dedication event honoring the comedian on Monday that had been postponed since November, after students at the school publicly criticized the comedian for telling jokes widely found to be transphobic in The Closer.
Chappelle visited his alma mater in November of 2021 and underwent a tense Q and A session with the student body in which many students criticized Chappelle and his reaction to the reception of The Closer. Per Politico, Chappelle was greeted by a mix of cheers and boos and was dressed down by some of the students at his alma mater, with one student calling Chappelle “a bigot,” adding, “I’m 16, and I think you’re childish. You handled it like a child.” At the time, Chappelle reportedly responded to the criticism from teenagers in a defensive manner, telling one, “I’m better than every instrumentalist, artist, no matter what art you do in this school, right now, I’m better than all of you. I’m sure that will change. I’m sure you’ll be household names soon.”
After the incident, the school decided to postpone the unveiling of the Dave Chappelle theater, with Principal Sandi Logan conducting formal and informal meetings with students and student groups like the Gender & Sexuality Alliance to discuss Chappelle’s comments. “Moving forward with the event … without first addressing questions and concerns from members of the Ellington Community would be a missed opportunity for a teachable moment,” wrote the school in a statement.
At the dedication event on Monday, which Chappelle attended, he declined to have the theater named after him, saying that he was “sincerely hurt” by the backlash from students surrounding the special. In his remarks, Chappelle reportedly called the special a “masterpiece” and referred to himself as “maybe a once in a life time talent.” “No matter what they say about The Closer, it is still [one of the] most watched specials on Netflix,” he said.
In regards to the students who criticized him, Chappelle told the crowd that “these kids didn’t understand that they were instruments of artistic oppression,” adding, “The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it.”
Chappelle went on to reportedly say that while he found the backlash against him to lack nuance, he didn’t want his name on a theater to distract students from honing their craft. He shared that he decided on Friday to not have the theater named after him, but maintained that “the Ellington family is my family.” Instead of the Dave Chappelle Theater, the performing arts venue will be called the Theatre for Artistic Freedom & Expression.
Established in 1974, the Duke Ellington School for the Arts is one of the few public arts high schools in its area and serves a mostly Black student body from all across Washington, D.C. Chappelle—the school’s most famous alumni—pledged to donate $100,000 to the school’s theater, has brought celebrities such as Bradley Cooper and Chris Tucker to speak at the school, and previously said in October that having the theater named after him was “the most significant honor of my life.”
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