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Will Smith Gets a Street Named in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Where He Was Born and Raised

Will Smith holds up a street sign during a ceremony to name a street after him in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Will Smith holds up a street sign during a ceremony to name a street after him in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
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Will Smith Gets a Street Named in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Where He Was Born and Raised

Will Smith holds up a street sign during a ceremony to name a street after him in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Will Smith holds up a street sign during a ceremony to name a street after him in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

In West Philadelphia where he was born and raised, now there’s a street called Will Smith Way.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and city leaders honored the Oscar and Grammy winner on Wednesday, renaming a street next to Smith's old high school.

"Philly, I love you. I am yours. You are mine," Smith said at a ceremony along a section of 59th Street that now bears his name.

He reminisced about learning the values of hard work and education from his mother and father before hitting it big as an actor and rapper.

"Nobody gets an easy ride," he said. "That was one of the things these streets of Philadelphia taught me: that there's nothing wrong with a hard day's work."

Among those who came out to see him was a former teacher who was the first to call him "Prince Charming" — a nickname he changed up a bit for the 1990s TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," in which Smith played a teenager from Philadelphia who goes to live with relatives in Los Angeles.

"The name `The Fresh Prince' was coined in that building," Smith said, pointing back at Overbrook High School. "I added the ‘fresh’ because it was hip-hop slang."

Smith will release his fifth studio album "Based on a True Story" on Friday. It’s his first music project in two decades since "Lost and Found."

He won Grammys for "Summertime,Men In Black,Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It" and "Parents Just Don’t Understand." He's also starred in the movies "Bad Boys,Men in Black" and "King Richard."

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Film Academy Apologizes for Not Naming ‘No Other Land’ Co-director in Response to Attack on Him

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
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Film Academy Apologizes for Not Naming ‘No Other Land’ Co-director in Response to Attack on Him

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

After mounting criticism following its initial response to the violent attack on Oscar-winning "No Other Land" co-director Hamdan Ballal, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologized Friday for not acknowledging Ballal by name.

In a letter to academy members, academy CEO Bill Kramer and its president, Janet Yang, said they regretted not issuing a direct statement on Ballal. The director on Monday, witnesses said, was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by the Israeli military.

The attack, just weeks after Ballal and his fellow directors won best documentary at the Academy Awards, was widely condemned by numerous film organizations, among others. The academy on Wednesday released a statement condemning "harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints."

Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director of "No Other Land," was highly critical of that response, comparing it to "silence on Hamdan's assault."

On Friday, more than 600 of the academy's 11,000 members issued an open letter saying the academy's statement "fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for." Among the signatories were Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and "The Zone of Interest" filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.

After a meeting Friday by the academy's board of governors, Kramer and Yang responded with a new statement.

"We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world," they wrote to members. "We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances."

After being detained for more than 20 hours, Ballal was released by Israeli soldiers. Ballal and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler, allegations they deny. After being released, Ballal told The Associated Press a settler kicked his head "like a football" during an attack on his village.

"I realized they were attacking me specifically," Ballal said at a West Bank hospital after his release Tuesday. "When they say ‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand."

"No Other Land," a joint Israeli-Palestinian production, chronicles the situation in Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military designated as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.

After not finding a US distributor despite wide acclaim, "No Other Land" was self-released in theaters. It still managed to surpass $2 million in North American theaters.