AfroPunk festival transcends to new heights
theGRIO REPORT - After last year’s cancellation due to Hurricane Irene, the Afro-Punk Festival returned this year with an evolved identity, catering to a cultural amalgamation of young folks...
While Janelle – and other AfroPunk alumni, like Santigold – have commercial success and serve as a nod to Afro-Punk’s increasingly cross-cultural mainstream appeal, not everyone is on board with — or even understanding of — its evolution.
Matthew Murray, a concert co-founder who spends who the better part of the year leading up to the festival working to secure sponsorship, says some people are even still hung up on the event’s name.
“Everybody, particularly people of color, they… hear ‘punk and they reject it immediately,” Murray said. On the other end of the spectrum, Murray says a major design brand declined to sponsor this year’s festival, saying it was “too urban.”
“It is now a struggle with media, a struggle with black advertising in a way, the dollars are spread out, and how we’re valued,” Murray said. “Brands should be falling over themselves to help these kids and to work with these kids in ways that help them develop. They’re not. They’re buying into more norm stereotypes.”
Despite opposition from advertisers and and critics who say the festival no longer serves its originally intended audience, black punk rockers, Afro-Punk continues to thrive — largely benefiting from promotion via an online network by the same name. Additionally, Murray and his team manage to score major support from sponsors such as Nike, Vitamin Water and Heineken, which keeps the festival free.
And while Afro-Punk inherently continues to defy cultural norms as it leisurely adapts to youth culture, Murray says there is a deeply-rooted purpose which remains consistent throughout.
“These kids might come [to AfroPunk for] the fashion, but when they open the fashion, we’re gonna give them the music,” Murray said. “When they see the music, we’re gonna give them the lifestyle, sports. Then we’re gonna give them the things that we deem important — reading, writing, history, knowledge of oneself — the things that really ground a community.”
The relationship between Afro-Punk and today’s youth culture seems to be mutually beneficial, unifying through means of individuality. On both fronts, further evolution seems inevitable.
Brianna Dotson, who was present at the festival to promote Coco & Breezy, the popular hipster eye-wear line she shares with her twin sister, agrees.
“Our generation, we’re colliding more together which is great,” Dotson said. “Our generation is the next big thing.”
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