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Afro-Punk
Afro-punk (sometimes spelled Afro-Punk, Afropunk or AfroPunk) refers to the participation of African Americans and other Black people in punk and alternative subcultures, especially in the United States. History The term originated from the 2003 documentary ''Afro-Punk'' directed by James Spooner. In the early 21st century, Afro-punks made up a minority in the North American punk scene. Notable bands that can be linked to the Afro-punk community include: Death, Pure Hell, Bad Brains, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys, Fishbone, Wesley Willis Fiasco, Suffrajett, The Templars, Unlocking the Truth and Rough Francis. In the United Kingdom, influential black musicians associated with the late 1970s punk scene included Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, Don Letts and Basement 5. Afro-punk has become a movement, comparable to the early hip hop movement of the 1980s. The Afropunk Music Festival was founded in 2005 by James Spooner and Matthew Morgan. Festivals AfroPunk has Festivals in 5 ...
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Afro-Punk (film)
''Afro-Punk'' (2003) is a 66-minute documentary film directed by James Spooner and produced by Matthew Morgan, exploring the roles of African Americans within what was then an overwhelmingly white punk scene across the United States of America—and taking place as the world shifted with the galvanizing power of the internet. The film focuses on the lives of four African Americans dedicated to the punk rock lifestyle, interspersed with interviews from scores of black punk rockers from all over the United States. Fans of the film and the music inspired an alternative movement, that later became the annual Afropunk Festival beginning in 2005. Summary ''Afro-Punk'' explores the lives of black youth within a white punk subculture with the aim of expanding notions of blackness and reclaiming rock's roots by providing a platform for black artists that were not given the opportunity elsewhere. Growing up bi-racial on the streets of New York City, Spooner discovered and connected with the ...
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James Spooner
James Spooner is an American tattoo artist and graphic novelist from New York City, living in Los Angeles. He is best known for his seminal documentary film ''Afro-Punk'' (2003), exploring the African American experience in the punk and alternative music scene, and for co-creating the Afropunk Festival in Brooklyn, New York. After Afro-Punk's release, Spooner curated the Liberation Sessions concert series which promoted black artistry via music and film, and then subsequently co-founded the annual Afropunk Festival in Brooklyn, working with it from 2005 through 2008, and later parting due to philosophical differences with its direction. Spooner later wrote and directed ''White Lies Black Sheep'' (2007), a fictional feature set within the punk world that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He also wrote the foreword for the book anthology "White Riot" which examines where race, identity, and punk music intersect. Presently, Spooner is a co-curator for the Broad ...
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Afropunk Music Festival
Afropunk Festival is an annual arts festival that features music, film, fashion, and art produced by alternative black artists. The Afropunk Festival began in 2005, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Afropunk Festivals have also been held in various major cities, including Atlanta, Paris, London, Brazil, and Johannesburg, South Africa. The festival was co-founded by James Spooner and Matthew Morgan, and grew out of the 2003 documentary titled Afro-Punk which studied black punks across America.''AfroPunk Started With a Documentary''
Village Voice


History


2005-2008

In the early years, the festival was targeted towards black alternative-minded punks. The festival ...
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Pure Hell
Pure Hell is a punk rock band, established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1974, during the high point of punk culture in New York City, London and Los Angeles. It has been cited by Bad Brains "as an early influence". Career Among the pioneers of the post- garage rock, post-acid rock, glam-theater era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Pure Hell was among the first of its kind, comparable to the MC5, Sex Pistols, and Dead Boys. Commercially, the band had little success and only released one single, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" backed with "No Rules") and one album, ''Noise Addiction'', which was unreleased for 28 years. Founding member writer/vocalist Kenny Gordon and drummer Spider of Pure Hell also have an unreleased album produced in the mid-1990s by former members of L.A. Guns, Nine Inch Nails and Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, entitled ''The Black Box''. This album has Kilmister singing background vocals in a rare song titled "The Call". In 2012, Pure Hell reformed ...
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Punk Subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedom, and the DIY ethics, the culture originated from punk rock. The punk ethos is primarily made up of beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not "selling out". There is a wide range of punk fashion, including T-shirts, leather jackets, Dr. Martens boots, hairstyles such as brightly coloured hair and spiked mohawks, cosmetics, tattoos, jewellery, and body modification. Women in the hardcore scene typically wore masculine clothing. Punk aesthetics determine the type of art punks enjoy, which typically has underground, minimalist, iconoclastic, and satirical sensibilities. Punk has generated a considerable amount of p ...
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X-Ray Spex
X-Ray Spex were an English punk rock band formed in 1976 in London. During their first incarnation (1976–1979), X-Ray Spex released five singles and one album. Their 1977 single " Oh Bondage Up Yours!" and 1978 debut album '' Germfree Adolescents'' are widely acclaimed as classic punk releases. The band has briefly reformed several times in the 1990s and 2000s. Career Initially, the band featured singer Poly Styrene (born Marion Joan Elliott-Said) (alternatively spelled Marian or Marianne) on vocals, Jak Airport (Jack Stafford) on guitars, Paul Dean on bass, Paul 'B. P.' Hurding on drums, and Lora Logic (born Susan Whitby) on saxophone. This last instrument was an atypical addition to the standard punk instrumental line-up, and became one of the group's most distinctive features. Logic played on only one of the band's records. As she was only fifteen, playing saxophone was a hobby and she left the band to complete her education. X-Ray Spex's other distinctive musical ele ...
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Don Letts
Donovan "Don" Letts (born 10 January 1956) is a British film director, disc jockey (DJ) and musician. Letts first came to prominence as the videographer for the Clash, directing several of their music videos. In 1984, Letts co-founded the band Big Audio Dynamite with former Clash lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist Mick Jones, acting as the band's sampler and videographer before departing the band in 1990. Letts has also directed music videos for Musical Youth, the Psychedelic Furs, Fun Boy Three, the Pretenders and Elvis Costello as well as the feature documentaries '' The Punk Rock Movie'' (1978) and '' The Clash: Westway to the World'' (2000). Biography Letts was born in London, and educated at Tenison's School in Kennington. In 1975, he ran the London clothing store Acme Attractions, selling " electric blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long." He was deeply inspired by the music coming from his parents' homeland, Jamaica, in particular Bob M ...
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Basement 5
Basement 5 were a reggae punk fusion band from London founded in 1978. Their first vocalist was Winston Fergus, then Don Letts. One of their early performances was a support for Public Image Ltd.'s London debut at the Rainbow on Christmas Day 1978. Finally in 1979 Dennis Morris - photographer of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols, took over as creative force, lead vocalist and lyricist. He also designed the Basement 5 logo and created their image. The drums were played by Richard Dudanski, who had played in the bands 101ers, The Raincoats and Public Image Ltd. Their songs reflected the political situation of the time in Great Britain in the era of Margaret Thatcher: youth unemployment, strikes, racism and the poverty of the working class. In 1980 they got signed to Island Records with vocalist Dennis Morris. The new line up played its debut gig at Clarendon Hotel in London (19 March 1980), followed by a set at Camden's Music Machine (now called KOKO) at an all night gig hosted by ...
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Mixmag
''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printed on 1 February 1983 as a 16-page black-and-white magazine published by Disco Mix Club, a DJ mailout service. The first cover featured American music group Shalamar. When house music began in the 1980s, editor and DJ Dave Seaman turned the magazine from a newsletter for DJs into a magazine covering all dance music and club culture. ''Mixmag'', in association with its original publishing company, DMC Publishing, released a series of CDs under the "Mixmag Live" heading. The magazine, which reached a circulation of up to 70,000 copies, was later sold to EMAP Ltd. in the mid-1990s. In 1996, an American version titled ''Mixmag USA'' was launched. It was renamed Mixer after the UK edition of Mixmag was sold to EMAP. It ceased publication al ...
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