Afropunk is a Black music festival in Brooklyn that has grown from a documentary about Black punk rockers, into an Alternative Black Arts Festival with a global footprint. The music is great and Afropunk attendees flex more style in a weekend, than you’ll see in an entire New York Fashion Week. It’s a street photographer’s paradise.
20th Afropunk BLKTOPIA 2025
There were some incorrect influencer instagram posts about Afropunk BLKTOPIA 2025, but as of August 5, 2025, Afropunk is officially skipping BLKTOPIA 2025 to focus on Afropunk Brazil this year. Brazil has the largest Afro-descendent population outside of Mother Afrika. Its blend of Indigenous, European, and African creates a rich culture that is loved around the world, and influences global culture as well.
Afropunk BLKTOPIA ~ boas viagens no Brasil, but we want you back!
Afropunk BLKTOPIA 2024
Afropunk BLKTOPIA 2024, Brooklyn’s Alternative Black Arts festival, is headlined by Erykah Badu in a benefit for the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Black cultural festival; at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park, Brooklyn; on Friday-Saturday, August 23-24, 2024, from 1-10pm. From $122. Hurry, this always sells out.
BLKTOPIA is about Black Futurism. It’s a call for a safe space where we can create the world we want to live in ~ together.
Afropunk BLKTOPIA 2024 is two nights with different vibes. Erykah Badu (@erykahbadu) headlines both nights. 🇺🇸
- FRIDAY NIGHT: Beyonce’s dance co-captain Amari Marshall (@amarimonster 🇺🇸) hosts a Ballroom Battle with Fight Club NYC, a battle of the bands with B.A.K. (@big.ass.kids), wrestling showcases with Legacy Pro Wrestling (@lpwrestling 🇺🇸), and MPB and axé (Candomblé pop music) by Brazilian singer and TV personality Larissa Luz (@larissaluzeluz 🇧🇷).
- SATURDAY NIGHT: Producer personality Gitoo (@gitoo_thoo 🇺🇸) hosts house singer Durand Bernarr (@durandbernarr 🇺🇸) with DJ sets by New York Sudanese DJ mOma (Everyday People @djmoma 🇸🇩), and punk rockers Rebelmatic (@rebelmaticnyc 🇺🇸) and Jenny Hates Techno (@jennyhatestechno 🇺🇸).
Afropunk
The first Festival was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2005. It was founded by Matthew Morgan and James Spooner who produced and wrote the 2003 documentary “Afro-Punk,” about Black punk rockers in America. That’s a crazy proposition because dancing to punk rock is basically slamming into each other in a “mosh pit” in front of the stage, and most punkers were White. To be the only Black kid banging around in a White mosh pit is insane, but somehow it worked.
Jocelyn A. Cooper got involved in 2009. Afropunk went global in cities across the United States and in Paris, France; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Salvador, Brazil. The Festival was acquired by Richelieu Dennis and Essence Ventures in 2020. Since then, the Festival has been criticized for going corporate and loosing its rebel cred, but it’s still an amazing festival of Black talent and style.
Afropunk has a vision and this is Brooklyn which is cool in and of itself. It’s ironic how traditional Black culture (think Carnival) and Black Futurism go together perfectly.
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