The Manhattan Beat: Afropunk 2019 at Commodore Barry Jr. Park, Day One

Afropunk started as a documentary in 2003 that chronicled the black experience in a mostly white punk rock movement. This led to the Afropunk Festival in 2005 and quickly mushroomed into an expansive music and cultural event that annually closes the summer for 60,000 participants in Brooklyn, New York. The festival has since expanded to become an international brand running events in five cities across four countries. Afropunk spotlights live music, film, fashion, food, art, crafts, and activism within the black community, and promotes zero tolerance for racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, fat-phobia, transphobia, and, an addition this year, Trumpism.

This year’s Afropunk Brooklyn festival, held at Commodore Barry Jr. Park on August 24 and 25, came with a new, positive theme, #AfropunkWeSeeYou, instead of the more resistance-counterculture marketing used in the past. Once again, live performances took place on four stages, and featured a wide range of music. FKA Twigs, Jill Scott, Kamasi Washington, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr., Santigold, Danny Brown, Death Grips, GoldLink, Lianne La Havas, Toro Y Moi, Nao, Tierra Whack, J.I.D, Rico Nasty, Ravyn Lenae, Leikeli47, Earthgang, Kari Faux, Junglepussy, and numerous djs performed from about noon to 10:30 p.m. each of the two days.