A lot has happened recently for AfroPunk and they’re not too good. Ericka Hart got booted from VIP because Matthew, co founder and remaining head of AfroPunk, saw the “AfroPunk sold out for White Consumption” shirt her partner wore and wasn’t too happy about it. Then you have long time editor in chief Lou Constant-Desportes also departing because AfroPunk changed and not for the better. This is on top of other articles about AfroPunk pretty much absconding its roots for more corporate sights.

Black Witch got started on AfroPunk back in 2010. Lou was my head editor (and really nifty at it!) so this is noteworthy to me. I left AP back in 2012/2013 for these exact same reasons, seriously. 2012 was the beginning of the end to me, when the changes started to get putrid.

Here is a glimmer from that linked post:

So, this is the last Black Witch post on Afro-Punk. I first started there three years ago when there were regular columnist rotations such as Dorm Room Diaries and T.O.B.E. and even cartoonist Keith Knight was here. I think that Afro-Punk has indeed changed since then and rapidly at that and it feels a little out of place for me to stay here as a regular columnist. I’m sure it’s odd for some of the newcomers to see my columns pop up in the midst of the usual Afro-Punk postings because I hit a pretty particular niche (the Black and Pagan demographic).

I have met and hung out with Matthew at many AP events. I even still remember chatting with him on the forum boards. I’m not gonna dog pile with stories I don’t have. He’s definitely the persistence, go-getter type, which I thought was omega cool but sometimes he’d be dismissive about issues that were undercurrents to bigger problems. I just figured, “Eh, he’s got work to do, can’t fret over every little thing,” but it really snowballed. Then there was 2012 AP Fest, which went straight-up wtf. And the first sight of Afropunk today.

I went to AP Fest 2010 (when it was free) and 2012 (when it wasn’t, but I got in free as staff). I would have done 2011 but a hurricane happened. Like, I was really willing to go in a hurricane, I was even joking with Wondaland Arts Society about it. Former NYC mayor Bloomberg thought otherwise and shut the city down. Honestly, it’s like that hurricane created a gulf of time to separate Afropunk from who they were at the start to who they became now. I still wish I could have gone to 2011 in hopes it would have been like 2010.

In 2010, there was a kids table and the anti-smoking campaign Truth Truck (I still have pics of Cerebral Ballzy performing atop it, freeeeeeaking out the Truth Truck folks. We all told them “you’re at a punk show, chill!”). In 2012, it seemed like Afropunk was trying to outdo Coachella and Woodstock single-handedly. Some White teen even nearly od’d on some coke. Speaking of the White kids…I literally remember standing under the 2012 AP banner and had to check it several times because I kept going, “Where the hell did all these White people come from?” Talk about super sayan gentrified! And now old Nazi punks showed up to the 2018 AP Fest? Bro, at a punk show of any flavor, when a Nazi shows up, you duff ’em out like it’s 1945, no matter the age. The person should not have been allowed in, regardless of whether or not they paid.

In 2010, AfroPunk was Black and weird. Just like it should be. It was filled to the gills with punks, lolitas, weirdos the Black mainstream long rejected for bullsh*t reasons. There were tons of punk and metal bands. Black ones. Everyone was an outsider and that’s what brought us together. I still think my happiest moment with AP Fest 2010 is the fact I helped the drive to get P.O.S and K-oS to play the festival. There were no White people there. The EMTs were Black, the security was Black (one person even told me Nation of Islam helped with security. I still don’t know if it is true but they were stoic and tightly dressed enough for me to believe), the bands were Black, it was a Black festival! I still remember nearly getting ran over by pro BMX rider Nigel Sylvester. That was totally sick, man! I felt so happy! I made friends, I met co-columnists and everything. I still have the pictures. In 2012, it changed and drastically. I remember sitting with Alexis from Straight Line Stitch and she lamented, “We’re the only other metal band on the bill.” I didn’t believe her until she pointed everyone out on the line up and I was aghast. It was like Afropunk just stopped associating itself with the very people that built them. It was coming from a lot of my punk and metal friends. Dude, Afropunk even tag-teamed with BET. That’s like Trump and Obama tag-teaming, it’s just a heavy ‘f*ck no’.

Every AP Fest had police, welcome to holding a big event in NYC. But in 2010, they were super chill, even the White ones. They saw we were effectively policing ourselves and we were weird but chill. No drug problems, no violence problems, nothing major. Even the cops said they loved working AP Fest because “it’s like getting a vacation at work.”  In 2012, things got more hairy as things went south. The cops were aggressive and fearsome. I remember being a bit taken aback how they were super nice and you could talk to them for a while and when I expected the same in 2012, I got the direct opposite. On top of that, someone in the Afropunk camp even told me to guide the cops away from the drug use if they came backstage or near VIP – that was my final straw. I said I wouldn’t and that I wouldn’t stand for this. I remember nearly getting knocked over because some dosed up kid scaled the fence, got into backstage and nearly darted into Janelle Monae’s tent. I was with Wondaland at the time chatting and the kid shot right past us, as did a couple members of security. Jeez, that was terrifying. I still don’t know if she ever knew and ain’t gonna ask. I just remember we all nearly followed security to stop the kid. Security was over worked that weekend. Nothing like 2010.

In 2010, the crowd was unified because we were all roughly the same, Black and unusual. In 2012, I felt like an outsider in my own house because all the boho and normal Black folks that decided to crash since I guess having dibs on literally every Black festival ever wasn’t good enough. And then there was the seas of White people who just wanted to invade another space because, frankly, what else do they do with their time? I had paparazzi-feeling moments several times as I wore punk, kuro and gothic lolita. I definitely threatened to break a camera or two because they were not asking or complementing, just flickty-flick and dip. Not cool.

Then there’s the part where Afropunk had shut down the backstage area to everyone – staff, writers, other performers – because Solange swung by to visit. Everyone was pissed since our credentials were suddenly useless now that a member of the Knowles family swung by. Please note, this wasn’t ordered by Solange, she just wanted to pay Janelle Monae a visit, it was Afropunk higher ups. The rest of us eventually got in, after a lot of bickering and complaining with security.

And the corporate dudes! Afropunk used to tag with brands that resembled and worked with AfroPunk like BMX and Truth. Then Nike*, Coors and Red Bull came through. All of a sudden, it was corporate city backstage at a punk show. I I remember one of my friends and and I were there. Nike folks got pissed that we were sitting in their hallowed, glamp-looking seats. So we stole some of their towels. Still have mine, still soft as a cloud – the softest towel I still have ever touched.

And that was the festival, not the back happenings of the rest of year. My posts got staggered, the edits were annoying and eventually I was tossed off, it seemed. I remember being asked back because Afropunk was rebranding and asked if I wanted part. I said “No.” This was not the Afropunk I originally came for, this new Afropunk wasn’t even true to itself.

Afropunk just…they went so south, I’m tellin’ you. I know because I saw with my own eyes. And I said it to many people in my own circles. If anyone said they were going to AP Fest, I would strongly convince them out of it. I never really said anything out loud because I thought I was kinda by myself. Turns out, I wasn’t.

Any time Lou leaves, that is very much bad news bears for Afropunk; he was the old guard, one of the originals. I understood how Afropunk documentary creator and co-founder of AP, James Spooner, felt but now I really see how he feels. He built this, saw what a behemoth it turned into and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

I remember when Matthew would bemoan how expensive running a fest was on the boards, and it was totally justified – festivals are pricy (like, top-of-the line Telsas look super cheap pricy) and he was running it when it was free, which was forever running him into the red. I get that totally. I just wish AP stayed true to its roots all the while as he fixed that problem.

* Nike was at AP Fest 2010 as Nike SB but AP Fest 2012, it was a bigger, more corporate showing