Help Me Report the Story of AFROPUNK

A rainbow appears over the concert grounds at at Constitution Hill. The rainstorm nearly threatened the opening day of Afropunk Joburg, 2017.



AFROPUNK is well known for its fashion and music, but what's been has been left unreported is the impact it's having as it expands across the globe.

AFROPUNK is the cultural embodiment of the Black Lives Matter movement, but If this important aspect is left untold, we miss the opportunity to learn about the greatest black cultural shift since Jazz and Hip Hop! If nothing changes, we risk allowing growing cynicism among a large cohort of the festival's original fans to dominate the narrative of the festival and while valid, is an oversimplification that is overshadowing what's happening worldwide.


My project, The Globalization of AFROPUNK is a political analysis that will address the good, the bad and the potential of this under-reported aspect of the festival. Help me bring context to the conversations around AFROPUNK and the afro punk movement!!

I've had grants to support this work and have spent thousands out of pocket to bring this story to the world. Your contribution will help pay for travel, lodging, three days of translation, ground transportation and food and a modest stipend for my day rate.  (see budget below). Any surplus funds will go towards my book project. Your support will also help show editors that people want to see this story happen, as I've been having trouble convincing editors the import of this story. 


Proposed Project Details:

AFROPUNK Joburg, 2017

On the weekend of July 13th, sixteen years after the debut of the independent documentary Afro-Punk in 2003, Paris will host its 4th annual AFROPUNK Music Festival, just one fest in a portfolio of international events.

In December 2017, the Pulitzer Center supported my trip to South Africa, the last leg of my travels following the festival from Brooklyn to London and Paris that year. Reporting on the first event in Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, I found that AFROPUNK’s political and social influence had spread much further than its musical event which spans across three continents. After field reporting during the AFROPUNK x JOBURG event and in-depth sociology research, I’ve gathered that AFROPUNK fits all the hallmarks social movement.

AFROPUNKxParis 2019 presents an opportunity to complete this multimedia political analysis. What’s changed over the passed two years? Why are people traveling to attend? Is there an impact on the French audiences it unites? Is AFROPUNK being reflected in French culture. Does it manifest socially, politically, culturally or personally? Does it compare to the impact made in the US? Do the stateside criticisms of the festival’s push into the American mainstream and accusations of “selling out” register abroad?

AFROPUNK attendees in London and Johannesburg

AFROPUNK is a significant, yet under-reported cultural development of the first two decades of the millennium. It is alternative black music, but also an alternative response to the social turmoil facing the global African Diaspora and AFROPUNK may prove to be as impactful as Hip Hop, Rock, Jazz and other African American musical that have gone global.

My report includes video, photo and when finished will be about 7,000 words that will:

- Use AFROPUNK to  help us understand social movements in this time of global social turmoil

- Review the ways in which Afropunk carries on the socio-political traditions and international influence of black American music

- Explain the criteria that constitutes a social movement

- Consider how capitalism can both elevate and threaten the trajectory of social movements and cultural products

- Showcase interpersonal and societal examples of the impact Afropunk is having worldwide

and!

- Use historical hindsight to help us anticipate, utilize and fully appreciate the evolving influence of the festival and provide deeper context to the critiques of early fans and how it all fits the history and patterns of African American music history and culture.

This project has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
and a piece I wrote  has been published in NPR  and I've photographed AFROPUNK for The New York Times  and The Undefeated.


Help me update my reporting by supporting a three day trip to Paris!!!

Thanks soo much for your consideration!!



Airfare to Paris   $1000
AirBNB                    $300
Food                          $100
Transport                $100
Translator/Fixer  $375
3 days reporting  $500
Contingency          $125