Afropunk is back in Brooklyn on Saturday, but with some new twists

Afropunk, the annual festival celebrating Black music and culture, returns to Brooklyn this weekend, but things will look and feel a bit different.

The two-day festival starting Saturday has moved to Greenpoint Terminal Market, featuring a wide range of music, food vendors and a host of offerings from small-brand shops. Previous festivals were held at Fort Greene’s Commodore Barry Park.

“Working with partners in the local community, it just seemed like it was a good fit for us in terms of collaboration,” Allen T. Lamb, the head of Afropunk Worldwide, said. “That's where we landed, and who knows what” prospects remain for next year.

Here’s more of our conversation with Lamb on what to expect. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Afropunk has changed over the years. Can you tell me what to expect this year?

We've themed this Brooklyn experience as the “Circus of Soul.” It's the first time Afropunk's been themed. I love that you mentioned that it's evolved, so has punk and a part of punk is having an evolution and constantly being innovative.

Afropunk started out as a film speaking to Black youth who listened to metal and sort of did very uncommon Black expected things. We've continued to create spaces for people to express themselves.

As we were thinking about how to create a space for expressing Blackness and a Black future this year, we wanted to move from the oddities part of a circus to expressing how we're outstanding. That's what this will be about. It's about coming and making sure that your powers are on full display.

You mentioned this is the first time Afropunk will have a theme. Why was it important to incorporate one this year?

This brand at its core is artists, creatives, curators and DIYers. So this notion of creative destruction comes to mind. We had been at Commodore Barry Park for the better part of the last decade.

We learned a lot through Brooklyn last year. We have since been to Brazil with 50,000 people experiencing Afropunk. Part of what we wanted to bring into this environment with some of those learnings involved was to help people have an anchor about how they can approach this new space at Greenpoint Terminal Market. So that is the grand experiment this year is to have our theme.

How will this theme come to life? When people walk into this space, outside of the musical performances, what else will be available for patrons to experience?

So being a themed festival, there will be calls to a circus environment. But beyond that, we have mainstays, like the Spin Fifth Market. This is where we've had local Black vendors coming and bringing everything from apparel, to goods, and even services into a space that's highly curated and intentional.

In addition to that, we have another mainstay called Bites and Beats, and that's food trucks tied to music. I can think of any good environment I've been in around family or friends, and there's always music going. So we make sure to tie that together.

There's been a few lineup changes. Jasmine Sullivan is no longer headlining on Sunday. What was it like curating this year’s festival lineup and how do the artists speak to the theme incorporated this year?

Our hearts have been with Jasmine who lost her mom. The queen that she is, she really was quite supportive of having the Majestic Teyana Taylor step in. And we are so excited to have her headlining now. But in addition to Teyana we have Flying Lotus. I can't wait for people to see and hear Flying Lotus's art who aren't familiar.

I just wanna quickly note Afropunk’s about discovery. It’s fantastic to hear afterward people come who find a new artist they wouldn't have ever known about before. We have a mix of discovery and a mix of some mainstays. Joey Badass, Baby Tate, and Vince Staples are familiar names.

We had an Afropunk at Essence this past July. There were after parties Durand Bernarr headlined one of them and tore it down. We can't wait until Durand takes the stage this Saturday and Sunday.

We focus on being intentional about curating, to make sure there's a bit of discovery, but also making sure that you kind of just get the exposure to Teyana, Joey Badass and Vince Staples and Flying Lotus in a place where you wouldn't normally see them.

We got a little bit of Hip Hop 50 callback and then just a bunch of others who are gonna speak to both punk and metal.

We’ve both mentioned how Afropunk has evolved. Were there any conversations around making sure Afropunk still had callbacks to its roots? You mentioned there will be more punk and metal artists performing this year.

The three-ring stage in particular will be absolutely enough for [punk lovers] to feel seen. Part of what we represent as a brand is making sure people feel seen and see each other. We're a space for all.

But one thing I just wanna call out is punk, in and of itself, is a psychographic, and part of the beauty of punk is, you can't see it. You can't necessarily even hear it. Part of it is really how you think about the world and we are as counter-cultural as it gets.

We’re moving into spaces where no one would ever think to see a Black-owned brand. Being at Lincoln Center and Grand Park in L.A. These venerable institutions. You can't get more punk than moving into a space that has symphonies and philharmonics and taking over with artists who you would never imagine taking over those stages.

For the last decade Afropunk has been in Fort Greene. What went behind the decision to move location?

Without talking about Commodore Barry specifically, I can note New York City and Brooklyn have developed ways of thinking about their parks. So I don't believe you'll see major festivals landing inside of these spaces for the foreseeable future. So in helping to support the city and its decision makers, we wanted to find a space that would be supportive of the brand, supportive of its artists, and its audience.

As we came upon the Greenpoint Terminal Market, the skyline that we will see was a part of the draw. As well as just making sure it's accessible. It is accessible by a ferry, by car and subway.

How will the capacity limit of the Terminal Market affect the patron going experience this year?

Historically, Afropunk has sat sort of in the upwards of 20,000 people. This is a smaller venue. I will note that for this year we will not be situating 20,000 people. But what I can tell you is that the space, the way it will be curated and the fact that it's the first themed, it will be the most intimate Afropunk that we've ever curated for the audience. What we don't have in scale for this year we will have an intimacy both with creativity and with the artist.

Where do you see Afropunk evolving in the next three, four, five years?

Other festivals have moved. Some in fact have shut down. Afropunk's been a mainstay and I think it's important to point out this Black-owned brand continues to standby the audience in that way.

I mentioned Lincoln Center and being collaborators. These are not one-offs. We did a two-day takeover of Lincoln Center in February. We come back again in collaboration with Lincoln Center this October with what's called the Festival of Firsts.

We will have an ongoing conversation with the Smithsonian. We'll have an ongoing conversation with Grant Park. Every inch where the public might not think a Black owned brand belongs we plan on inserting ourselves there.

For tickets and more information about Afropunk in Brooklyn visit their website.