surviving in a hungry sea of white noise

August 21, 2015 6:13 AM

Brooklyn's Afropunk festival has gone from a small gathering of friends celebrating an underground documentary to a massive, celebrated boutique fashion and mainstream music cornucopia. Some say they have sold out. But in Pitchfork, author Hanif Abdurraqib, (previously) makes a case that it still represents something very real and important to black youth culture.
posted by Potomac Avenue (9 comments total)

First link, from Shaunna Randolph: "Fauxhawks, locs, piercings, studs, jean jackets with patches, and everything that I had seen the white kids do that I wanted to be a part of, but I just couldn't make that cross," Randolph, a freelance corporate marketer says, listing the styles she saw that weekend at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. "I finally saw black kids doing it and owning it and making it their own. It was just everything that I ever wanted to be, but couldn't figure out how to be."

And yes, Janelle Monáe is wholly punk rock.

Thanks, Potomac Avenue!
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:37 AM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't know much about the history of the festival, but it's expanded to Atlanta this year, and the lineup is better than the NYC one, in my opinion. (Although Candiria is playing in New York, and I would love to see them.)
posted by dortmunder at 6:56 AM on August 21, 2015

"I think anything that rebels against expectations, normal expectations, is punk rock,"

Botswana, a country you do not immediately think of by hearing the word "metal."
posted by three blind mice at 7:40 AM on August 21, 2015

"I saw a teenage girl shoved out of the way so that a teenage boy her size, or greater, could have a better view of a stage"

Ugh. This.

But fuck yeah, it's been awesome to see the metal and punk scenes get more diverse, I hope it also happens for the avant-garde electro-acoustic scene. There's a lot to talk about through that medium, it would be great to get other perspectives than "angsty white nerd" or "cool Japanese dude."
posted by Mooseli at 7:50 AM on August 21, 2015

I'll be curious to see the Afroshoegaze scene that develops out of this in a few years
posted by thelonius at 8:55 AM on August 21, 2015

"I'll be curious to see the Afroshoegaze scene that develops out of this in a few years"

I don't think Afropunk is following that old path. They are leading towards new things. It is common to think of other people as being behind us on our path but usually when they haven't passed our checkpoints it is because they are going a different direction.
posted by subtle_squid at 10:11 AM on August 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

I have seen more and more Afro-core and Afro-metal music coming out. Anyway, check out my guys the Loud Boyz. DC represent!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:14 AM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

OMG Candiria is still around! "Process of Self-Development" is one of those unclassifiable records that people will either run from screaming or bow down before. It genuinely sounds like nothing else; soothing, terrifying, primitive, sophisticated, rap metal jazz funk ambient punk rock salmagundi. Less fusion, more fission. I am excited. Please continue discussing AfroPunk, sorry to interrupt.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:35 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

This is cool. Thanks. And I am going to go see which "Process of Self-Development" group I fall into.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:22 PM on September 19, 2015