The comedic genius that is Dave Chappelle was awarded the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday October 27, 2019. The recorded ceremony was quite the star-studded affair. Many of Chappelle’s friends and colleagues shared humorous antidotes about their time and personal experiences with him. Musical performances with guest stars also filled the evening. Amid the evening’s highlights and surprises was a performance by Radical Elite Show Band, the marching band from Chappelle’s alma mater, Duke Ellington School of the Arts. This was the first time a marching band has performed during the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony and Duke Ellington School of the Arts (“DESA”) was privileged and flattered to be the first marching band to perform during this storied event. Moreover, Radical Elite was honored to be asked to celebrate one of Ellington’s most notable and generous alumni.
Dave Chappelle is known for his affinity for Duke Ellington School of the Arts and he turned his award-winning weekend into an opportunity to pay forward the mentorship he received as a student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which he has acknowledged as instrumental in his success. Chappelle gathered a distinguished group of his friends, all of who were accomplished artists in their own right and brought them all to Duke Ellington School of the Arts to deliver an unparalleled and unprecedented knowledge transfer to the Ellington student body through his Masterclass Monday conducted on October 28, 2019.
Masterclass instructors Erykah Badu, Mathieu Bitton, Common, Bradley Cooper, Chris Tucker, Thundercat, and Fred Yonnet were no less than masterful in their expressiveness, openness, and willingness to engage with the DESA students. The students will, surely, retain and employ in their future works all the insights and hard-earned experience shared in these classes. The magnanimous and magnificent nature of this Masterclass Monday gift to the DESA student body is stunning alone, yet, the eternal reverberations that will ripple throughout and beyond space and time make the benefits of this gift infinitely boundless.
For the Instrumental Music Department, there was an added highlight to Masterclass Monday, Radical Elite was chosen to perform for Dave Chappelle and his star-studded Masterclass Monday instructors during a ceremony in the Ellington Theatre. Radical Elite delivered, as usual, an electrifying high energy performance that had even the mega stars on their feet and dancing in the isles.
To top off an amazing day, Mayor Muriel Bowser proclaimed October 27, 2019, the day of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor award ceremony, as Dave Chappelle Day in Washington, DC. Celebratory remarks were offered by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Bowser, and Chairman Phil Mendelson. Additionally, the Museum Studies Department curated Dave Chappelle’s Emmy Awards and pieces from the Chappelle Show.
We all know that Duke Ellington School of the Arts is a special place. It is magical days like Dave Chappelle’s Masterclass Monday, the opportunity to perform on a nationally and internationally televised program, and to deliver two live performances for stars who are utter and indisputable legends in their fields that makes Duke Ellington School of the Arts incomparable. Who knew Duke could rock like this? #ChappelleKnew
*See more images from Dave Chappelle’s Masterclass Monday in the Photo Gallery.
