Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Before seeing this movie I kind of didn’t know what to expect from this. I remember seeing commercials on TV for Dave Chappelle’s Block Party near its 2004 release, but I passed it off for being just another concert movie, despite being a fan of Chappelle. Now that I finally saw it, and read up about the whole “Dave Chappelle incident,” I found this film to be a bit more than just your regular concert/ documentary movie. This movie went to theaters just as Dave Chappelle’s return to the states from his spiritual retreat to Africa; it was the movie that he wanted to do while was still working on Chappelle.

I instantly became a fan of Dave Chappelle through his sketch comedy show Chappelle’s Show and from there went on to his other works. I first heard of him through friends constantly asking me, “Have you seen the Chappelle’s show!?” Highly interested, I had to check it out, and instantaneously I loved it. On the Chappelle’s Show, Dave tackles many issues, primarily regarding race, but even though race is a difficult topic Chappelle shows it in a comedic way, but also sometimes very smart. From checking out his other works I found him to be a great comedian.

Directed by Michael Gondry, probably best known for directing the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party is not your average concert/ documentary, I felt there to be perhaps a larger message. Now looking back and seeing what Michael Gondry does, this is an interesting collaberatioin between him and Dave Chappelle. It obviously has the main concert, with musical acts in the genre of hip-hop and soul such as Mos Def, Kanye West, the Roots, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and a surprise reunion of the Fugees, as well as some behind the scenes on how they made this block party for the whole documentary aspect. The movie basically starts off in Dayton, Ohio, where Dave currently resides, letting the town know and giving some people tickets to his Block Party in Brooklyn, New York. By chance, Chappelle ran into a marching band and invited them to come play at the block party. In these scenes we see how some people from the small area actually view the hip-hop genre, the majority of people where surprisingly interested, one woman even went onto say, while she was packing to go, “I knew I should’ve bought a thong,” but looking back, it wasn’t it really that type of concert.

Throughout the movie we get to see performances from the featured artists with occasional cuts to Dave and the crew setting the block party up, I felt that it was done extremely well and at no point I became lost; everything just tied together and flowed. During the whole “set-up” we get to see a lot of interesting people and places; the surrounding area had a daycare, a Salvation Army, and a chair factory. One place that sticks out the most in this film is the Broken Angel House, located at 4/6 Downing Street, right behind where Dave set up the stage. The Broken Angel House is a very interesting and strange structure, at first I though it was a church. The outside of the building was very asymmetrical and the inside looked like a giant maze to me. There are even rooms within the house which had no floors or roof, meaning that this house was still being worked on, and has been for years. Not only was the house interesting, but the people who lived there as well. Artists Arthur and Cynthia Wood, who at the time of the film had their 46th anniversary, owned the Broken Angel House.

Large parts of the film, of course, are the performances. I was never that big on hip-hop, with only a couple artists I really like, but this movie totally gave me a new genre to check out, neo soul. After the movie I found myself picking up some of the artist’s work, and I have to say, I love it; as I’m writing this, I am listening to Mos Def. From watching this movie, I really got this feeling of community and closeness with everybody, which I believe is the theme and what Dave is trying to get at. It’s the “down to earth” quality that everyone had which made me like this movie even more. The block party was a place just to have a good time and have fun, no matter who you are; the film had a feel-good vibe to it. That’s what I love about concerts that I personally go to myself. It’s the fact that for a few hours you can just forget about everything that’s going on with your life or around the world and just have a good time no matter who you are with, that’s what I felt was accomplished in this film. Overall I found this to be a very enjoyable and entertaining film, but aside from that, it really showed togetherness. With the always-funny Dave Chappelle and of course the stellar line up of hip-hop and soul acts, I can say that I recommend this movie and anyone can at least find something they like within this movie.

Poetry Reading: Elaine Equi and Jerome Sala

I’ve never been much of a fan of poetry, but my opinions soon changed after a listening to a couple of poets read their material at Columbia College Chicago. The reading was located in the 623 S. Wabash Ave. building within the Hokin gallery, room 106. The featured poets for this event were Elaine Equi and Jerome Sala, a married couple both Chicago natives, but currently living in New York; I did not know what to expect. I knew very little of poetry and I didn’t have much of an interest for the art, so this was a whole new adventure for me.

I entered the lecture hall around 5:20pm on Wednesday October 26, not expecting a full house. As I walked in this dimly light room, to my surprise, there were many people, teachers and students alike eager to listen to the writings of Elaine and Jerome. Luckily I found a seat near the top of the room. After about 10 minutes, a man steps up to the podium and the whole room went into immediate silence. Jokingly, he said, “That was easy.” He went on to say thank you for being here, giving small info about how he knows both the pets, and how he is honored to be introducing them to read at Columbia College Chicago. But before the featured writers, the man introduced a 2^nd year grad student named Ryan to read his poetry to us. His work was very dark, perhaps too dark for this event, looking back on it. Once finished, the man goes up to the podium once more to give us some more information about the first of the two poets to read to us that evening, Jerome Sala.

Calling him the “Instigator of the Punk Poetry Scene,” I was excited to see what was in store. He goes on to tell us his accomplishments and the books that he has written, such as Spaz Attack and the newly released Prom Night. After an introduction, Jerome Sala walks up to the stage. The majority of his poems were highly entertaining, he started off with a poem called Mother’s Day, a very incestuous piece, then went on with R-Rated Christmas, a dark and vulgar take on Christmas that was also very funny. As he went on with his other work, I really taken a liking to these types of poems, they were very different to what I thought was a poem. He also went on to saying that we worked in Ads, and even read a poem designed to look like a storyboard for a commercial. Once finished, we were introduced to our next poet, Elaine Equi.

A graduate from our own Columbia College Chicago, she was an acclaimed writer, with books such Voice-Over and Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems. Her poems I really enjoyed, they were also very entertaining, funny, and real. I connected to her work more because of the fact that they felt real. Her overall work was not as lengthy as Sala’s, they were mostly short and to the point and I really like that about her work. She read a whole series of poems based on dreams, such as one where she was sitting in a restaurant picturing others’ dreams while she looks at them. My favorite series that she read to us was the “reading books over someone’s shoulder on the bus/train.” In them, she only reads a small line of text that she could make out when she glanced at the book the person next to her was reading; these were very funny and I enjoyed them quite a bit.

Overall the whole experience was a blast. Both poets had very interesting and had surprisingly entertaining and funny work. I’m glad I went to this small reading, it was a change for me, a change that I needed. Now I can call myself a fan and go out and buy some of their books.