It is an American music festival in Paris.
Fort Greene’s Afropunk Festival, which has showcased black alternative bands and artists in the borough for more than a decade, is going global this year, branching out to the City of Lights and a handful of U.S. cities. Other metropolises had been clamoring for their own version of the fest, so organizers said they answered the call.
“They are cities we had our eyes on and communities have been requesting we come there, so we took it as a natural evolution of what we are doing,” said Jocelyn Cooper, co-owner of Afropunk, the organization behind the festival as well as an online magazine and forum of the same name.
The production company will launch its first Afropunk Paris on May 23 and 24 with a mix of American, European, and African acts. The bill includes Willow and Jaden Smith — the precocious offspring of actor and rapper Will Smith — British folk and soul singer Lianne La Havas, and Nigerian blues-funk artist Keziah Jones. And Brooklyn will be well represented, with Bushwick synth-pop singer Twin Shadow and Williamsburger Zoe Kravitz’s band Lolawolf both playing.
The company will also throw an Afropunk Festival in Atlanta in October, after a concert it hosted there last year was a hit, and smaller shows in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. later this year, said Cooper.
And of course the annual Brooklyn fest — which has previously hosted stars including Cee Lo Green, Janelle Monae, D’Angelo, and Bad Brains — will be back at Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene in late August.
And Cooper said the company does not plan to stop with Paris — Afropunk eventually hopes to expand the festival to both South Africa and Brazil, she said.
Afropunk started in 2003 when its founders made a documentary about black punks. The creators held the first Afropunk Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2005.
