Dave Chappelle’s high school alma mater won’t have a theater named for him after all, Chappelle announced at the dedication ceremony on Monday.
Instead, he told attendees the building will be called the Theater for Artistic Freedom and Expression.
Chappelle, a 1991 graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., was announced as the student theater’s new namesake last year, but the ceremony was postponed due to the controversy over his most recent Netflix special, “The Closer,” and material that has been criticized as transphobic. According to the Washington Post, critics of Chappelle’s material about trans people included current students of the school.
According to the Post, Chappelle told attendees he didn’t want his name on the school theater to become a distraction for students. Chappelle previously called the decision to name the theater after him “the most significant honor of my life,” and he has pledged to donate $100,000 to the school.