The Punk Rock Museum Announces “Black Punk Now – After Afro-Punk, Beyond Bad Brains” Exhibition

The Punk Rock Museum have announced they will be presenting a new exhibition, Black Punk Now – After Afro-Punk, Beyond Bad Brains, from the 20th October until March 2024. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of James Spooner’s seminal documentary, Afro-Punk, and the release of his new anthology of black punk authors, entitled Black Punk Now. The collection is co-edited by Chris L Terry and will be published on October 31st 2023 via Soft Skull Press.

Upon its release in 2003, viewers and critics alike were quick to honor the documentary Afro-Punk with cult status; no one could predict the film’s ripple effect. What started as a personal exploration into the experience of being a black punk became the foundation of two distinct and in many ways, diametrically opposed communities. In one corner, a multi-million-dollar corporate Alt R & B brand and musical festival, in the other, a reactionary POC punk underground.

Before there was fiscal interest, the Afro-Punk documentary served as a platform for a New York-based black punk underground to commune. Monthly gatherings dubbed “the Liberation Sessions” and “the Social Hour” gave way, in 2005 to the “Afro-Punk weekend,” the first festival of its kind. Photographers including, Ed Marshall, Jefry Andres Wright, Duwayno Robinson and Bashira Webb were there to document those early concerts and the synthesis of punk’s first all-Black mosh pit. Their photos, along with others from members of the early Afro-Punk scene, will be shown publicly, for the first time ever.

The exhibition, Black Punk Now – After Afro-Punk, Beyond Bad Brains, also puts a spotlight on today’s generation of black punks. Disillusioned by consumer culture, underground BIPOC punk festivals realize the promise of the Afro-Punk documentary. Over twenty photographers contributed hundreds of images to prove once and for all that Black punk has continued, after Afro-Punk and beyond Bad Brains.

James Spooner, the Afro-Punk documentary, nor The Punk Rock Museum, claim any ownership, affiliation, or support from AFROPUNK LLC, the AFROPUNK™ brand, festival, company, or its mother company Essence Worldwide. The use of the Afro-Punk name in the Black Punk Now exhibition is only in reference to the documentary and the events supporting the documentary.