Dave Chappelle Decides Against Putting Name On High School Alma Mater Theater

Dave Chappelle’s high school alma mater had plans of naming its theater after the comedian’s $100,000 pledge to the school. But, in a plot twist, the comedian revealed that he had another name in mind. 

On Monday night (June 20), at the renaming inauguration, the comedian took to the microphone for what many believed would be the moment he announced the official renaming of the theater at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in D.C. Instead, Chappelle revealed that the theater would be named the Theater for Artistic Freedom and Expression—a direct callback to the recent bouts of controversy in which the icon has found himself.

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Seemingly drawing a connection of the theater’s new name to his current drama, the actor and comedian spoke about the importance of free speech, even bringing up his controversial Netflix special, The Closer, which came under fire for its comments about the LGBTQIA+ community. 

“I saw in the newspaper that a man who was dressed in women’s clothing threw a pie at the Mona Lisa and tried to deface it. And it made me laugh, and I thought, ‘It’s like The Closer,’ the comedian stated. 

Dave Chappelle continued his thoughts on his recent controversy, challenging the notion that he can’t say certain things and insisting that he can and should, in the name of art. 

“You cannot report on an artist’s work and remove artistic nuance. So when you say I can’t say something, it is more urgent for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you are saying, I can’t say. It has everything to do with my freedom of artistic expression.”

Closing out his speech, Chappelle mentioned that the kids who protested him last year “didn’t understand that they were instruments of oppression” and were pushing someone else’s agenda. He also mentioned that naming the school after himself was out of the question because the idea that the comedian’s name “will be turned into an instrument of someone else’s perceived oppression” was “untenable.”

After the premiere of his Netflix special, The Closer, Chappelle received backlash for his remarks since late 2021. Many members of the LGBTQIA+ community saw some of the special’s jokes as transphobic and dangerous and demanded that the streaming platform take action against the legend. 

It was at his very high school alma mater, where students challenged Chappelle on his language and protested against him in the process. 

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