Afropunk Music Festival
| Afropunk Festival | |
|---|---|
| Genre | alternative, blues, R&B, hip-hop, electronic, rock |
| Years active | 2005-present |
| Founded by | Matthew Morgan, James Spooner |
| Attendance | 70,000 |
| Website | |
| afropunkfest |
|
The Afropunk Festival (commonly referred to as Afropunk or Afropunk Fest ) is an annual arts festival that celebrates and unifies the cultural cornerstones of AFROPUNK through music, film, skate, and art. The annual festival made its first debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Brooklyn, New York City in 2005, and has since culturally expanded the festival across countries. Originally co-founded by Mathew Morgan and James Spooner, the festival was inspired by Spooner's 2003 documentary film entitled, Afro-Punk, which spotlighted black punks in America. The festival originally sought to provide black people an opportunity to build community amongst the predominantly white punk subcultures. To attract a wider audience, the festival shifted to include soul music, which expanded its target demographic, attracting headliners including Lauryn Hill, Lenny Kravitz, and Gary Clark, Jr.. Musical performers now represent a variety of genres, primarily known to reflect African-American culture.
Afrofunk's recent changes to its diverse cultural showcases, has allowed for the festival to build its masses to 60,000 attendees. Due to festival alterations that deviated from original Afropunk culture, former co-founder, James Spooner made the decision to end his involvement with the festival in 2008. Soon after, Jocelyn Cooper was introduced to the festival as co-organizer, broadening Afropunk Fest to Atlanta, Paris, London, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Released in 2003, James Spooner debuted a 66-minute documentary film, Afro-Punk, exploring the lives of blacks within a white punk subculture. Growing up bi-racial within the urban jungles of New York City is where Spooner discovered and connected with the punk music scene and culture. After examining the world of punk and noticing the lack of color present within the subcultured community, he began to question what it means to be black within a predominantly white music world. Digging deeper into the subject of race became the inspiration for his documentary. Traveling throughout the United States and abroad, Spooner followed the lives of four African Americans who have submerged and dedicated their lives to the punk rock culture. Through exclusive interviews with various punk rock bands including, Fishbone, 24-7 Spyz, and Dead Kennedys, Spooner's documentary covered issues of loneliness, exile, inter-racial dating, and the double lives people of color led within a predominately white sub-cultured community.
...
Wikipedia