A growing festival that centers on (for lack of a better term) alternative or outre black artists, Afropunk, just announced its devastating Brooklyn lineup. The headliners include indie darlings like FKA Twigs, Kamasi Washington and Gary Clark Jr., but the three-day festival is bringing in a few artists straight from the continent too, such as South Africans BCUC, the psych-punk masters of the sustained freak-out, and jazz-soul singer Thandiswa as well as their compatriots, Rudeboyz, Muzi and DJ Kenzhero. The internationally focused festival also has plenty of diasporic representation, including Alxndr London, a British artist born to Yoruba parents, and Lianne La Havas, also British but with Greek and Jamaican parents.
And really, when you think about it, as the festival is a celebration of blackness in all its forms, the connection to Africa is right in the title of the festival, and the whole lineup has claim to connection. The diversity in styles and origins of the performers speaks to the diversity within blackness itself.
After seeing BCUC shake the walls at globalFEST, though, it’ll be cool to see the band teaming up with like-minded peers here in America. And as an alumna of Bongo Maffin, one of the pioneering bands of kwaito, Thandiswa's solo artist second act deserved a shout-out as well.
