Amid increased backlash to the business of Afropunk, a host of collectives, festivals and artists of color have continued the punk resistance elsewhere
In the summer of 2001, a young, first-time film-maker traveled across the US,
shooting a documentary about an overlooked subject: black people inside the predominately white punk rock counterculture. Even with the established, historical contributions of African Americans to rock
music and outsider culture – from Jimi Hendrix to Funkadelic – black people in punk rock was, at the turn of the 21st century, still an unfamiliar and unaddressed topic.
Having himself grown up as a black person in the punk scene, James Spooner knew from experience that there was usually at least one black punk kid in every
American town, and he sought to amplify their voices, to let them know they weren’t alone.