A screening of Kanye West‘s video for his single New Slaves at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, was shut down by the police last Friday night before it even began, despite the assembled crowd being described as “upbeat” and “respectful”.
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that even though the crowd were law-abiding, the po-po rolled up with sirens blazing and lights flashing and told the punters they’d be arrested for trespassing if they didn’t vamoose ASAP. The screening, which was part of a second wave of projections of the video on buildings around the globe, wasn’t the only one that didn’t go ahead in Houston: another at the Central Library encountered some technical difficulties, while a third at the city’s George Bush Monument just never happened.
It seems like the gods are conspiring against bringing Yeezy to the people of Houston. The projections were a promotional event for his sixth studio album, Yeezus, which is due out 18th June – except in Houston, where it might just not turn up.