The segregation of American popular music in the 20th and 21st Centuries is a topic worthy of a doctoral dissertation or five. Without delving too far into such a thorny topic, rest assured that BAM's Afro-Punk Festival -- celebrating the titans of this all-too-maligned global subculture -- will be returning to Fort Greene this summer with a plethora of acts, according to granddaddy music blog BrooklynVegan. From elder statesmen Living Colour to the young upstarts like Janelle Monae (alas, Bad Brains are conspicuously absent), see people of African and African Diaspora origin (who are not Jimi Hendrix or B.B. King) bend convention and express themselves in a manner often suppressed by the mainstream -- with guitars, torn shirts and polemical lyrics. The festival will also include concurrent screenings of films (including a Spike Lee retrospective and the documentary Afro-Punk) and a temporary skate park adjacent to the venerable Academy itself, culminating in a block party on June 12th (on Clinton Avenue; G to Myrtle-Willoughby).
Did I mention that the whole shebang is... shall we say it... FREE?
Confirned musical acts (courtesy of BrooklynVegan):
July 4th:
Pure Hell
Whole Wheat Bread
American Fangs
Game Rebellion
The Objex
Joya Bravo
July 5th:
Living Colour
Earl Grey
Hound
Tamar Kali
The London Souls
Apollo Heights
Sabatta
July 6th:
Saul Williams
Janelle Monae
The Dallas Austin Experience
Elevator Fight
Chewing Pic's Peekaboo Theory
Blackie
More info about what is surely the local free festival of the year at http://www.afropunk.com/.
I love Whole Wheat Bread! Oh no! I hope I'm not working on the 4th of July! Oh, to lack freedom on such a day!
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