The Process: James Spooner, The Afropunk Festival

James Spooner lived Afropunk. First the film, then the concert. Afro-Punk, the 2003 documentary he directed, showcased a community of Black punk kids in scenes around the country and the world. A culture, presented in the popular media as all white, was suddenly exhibited in its true nuance and Black punk kids around the world knew they weren’t alone. Punk, as a movement, tends to eschew cults of personality, favoring a more DIY approach to community, but Spooner’s name still rings out in certain sections of that world.  

As a Black Punk in the mostly white scene of Apple Valley, Southern California, Spooner navigated all manner of assumptions, projections, and racisms thrown his way. He created a zine at sixteen years old and a record label at seventeen. When he moved to New York City at fifteen, Spooner started promoting the type of punk shows he loved. After the success of the Afro-Punk documentary, Spooner and an associate started the Afropunk Festival in 2005, in New York. In its nascent days, Afropunk attracted “positive,” “conscious,” folks far left of center, who came to affirm each other’s joy in existence as much as they came to be entertained by what was happening onstage. 

After four years, Spooner left the Afropunk organization. At first, he was tightlipped about the reasons why, but as the years have gone by and the festival he loved has garnered more of an international presence, he’s been speaking about what originally drew him into the promotion and the anti-DIY ethos that caused him to leave. Some say the festival hasn’t been the same since; last year two people wearing shirts that read “Afropunk sold out for white consumption” were kicked out of the VIP section (VIP being a concept that shows how divorced Afropunk is from its original punk values). In the ensuing decade, Spooner has grown to be one of the major voices in Black counter culture, though he seems to prefer a quiet life dedicated to his daughter, his partner, and his artistic pursuits, which include creating tattoos with vegan inks and writing a graphic memoir exploring his early life as a Black Punk in Apple Valley. 

Spooner is tall, light skinned, with a clean shaven bald head these days, and he sometimes sports a respectable beard. When he speaks, you can tell he spent some time in NYC; his gift of gab is strong. But his laugh is filled with an almost juvenile joy. Spooner is careful with his words—not litigious, just precise. I get the sense he’s been misrepresented before. He’s not strident, but I imagine if he says something controversial, he means it....