20th Anniversary: Afro-Punk

Afro-Punk is an award-winning documentary exploring the roles of African Americans within what was, then, an overwhelmingly white punk scene across the United States of America. The film focuses on the lives of four African Americans dedicated to the punk rock lifestyle and its values, interspersed with interviews from 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.

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 punk music scene and its culture, but also felt alienated from both his white peers in the scene and the Black community outside the scene. After examining the world of hardcore punk in America at the time, and noticing the lack of people of colour, along with the absence of dialogue around race despite its activist leanings, he began to question what it means to be Black within alternative scenes.

Kayus Bankole from Young Fathers will be present to introduce the film.

Content warning

The film contains scenes with strong language.