Sunday morning I got up and checked out the Afropunk schedule. There were only a few bands that I wanted to see, but I knew once I got over there I was going to be there because the park is in the boonies of Brooklyn. Well not totally, but it’s a bit of a hike on foot.
The first band that I wanted to see was
The Coup. I can’t remember the last time I saw the Coup, but I think that first time I saw them was when I first met the MC
Medusa. I was still working at
VIBE magazine and was asked to sit on a panel about hip-hop at Oberlin College. My stint at
VIBE was a long time ago so clearly it’s been a minute for The Coup and I. Ha! Sounds like a musical. Anyway, they were scheduled to hit at the festival at 2:45pm. The other folks I wanted to see included
Big Freedia, DEATH and
Living Colour. So I knew I would be there from 2:45 to at least 8pm.
Questlove and
Chuck D were also on that night, but I was trying to get to
Soul Summit (this is on outdoor dance party) too. I had lofty goals that day for real. LOL
I headed to the park and as I was walking toward the entrance I heard someone call my name. The person calling me recognized me from
American Candy. Turns out he was working one of the donation entrances, which were well before the main entrance. He just walked me in so I didn’t have to go all the way around. Nice! I headed toward the vendors to find my girl
Kelly Horrigan. Yes the same Kelly from the Michfest blogs. When I found her booth she wasn’t there so I just headed over to the stage to find a spot to check out The Coup. I found a little bit of real estate and just as I got over there they introduced The Coup!
Ok first of all my man
Boots Riley came out in some leather fringe pants that just rocked my world. I was like, “Damn I need some of those immediately!” Of course he’s been wearing his signature afro and chops as long as I can remember and they proceeded to kill it! He started one of the songs by saying, “This next song is one that was sung on the slave ships, it was passed down through the slave quarters becoming a negro spiritual. I heard Paul Robeson sing it and then I took it and changed the music and the words and called it something else. Here it is!” I was cracking up! Everyone was hanging on his every word and then we all started laughing and jammin’ at the same time. It was awesome! Then they had the nerve to bring out the woman power and introduce a beautiful sista named
Silk E! Yes, hunny! Silk E was amazing! She was way more than a backing vocalist. Way more! I mean, weave down her back, some cool spandex pants and a killin’ blue tank top with just enough sparkle and she rocked! She danced, sang her face off and then she sang her own song so she could really open up. That woman was singing on her knees and all that. It was dope!
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are The Coup from Oakland, California!” Yes you are!
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| The Coup |
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| Boots Riley of The Coup! |
When they finished I headed back to Kelly’s booth and this time she was there with my girl
Shira as well! I really love Kelly’s work. I recently did a video with her to showcase her massive talent. She put me in her
asudeM/Medusa costume and the rest is well, the rest. [Check the
Seen & Herd blog]
I hung out at her tent for a while and then took a walk around. I had time to kill before Death and Big Freedia hit their respective stages.
The time soon arrived for Death so I headed back over to the main stage. As I was standing there waiting for the band to start I saw two of the young ladies who were at my show the night before. One of them came over to me and said she didn’t think she would see me again so soon and was going to wait until I emailed her through my mailing list to reach out. She seemed so nervous to talk to me, which was making me nervous. LOL! No, not really, but I just noticed. Anyway, she told me that she was an aspiring songwriter and she was really moved by my show the night before and wanted to know if I would be interested in mentoring her. Me? Really? I didn’t say that, but that was my first thought. Then my second thought, but my first response was, of course! We exchanged information and we’ll see what happens from there. Turns out that was one of the first important moments of the day for me.
Soon Death hit the stage and they were amazing! At that point I had not seen the documentary about them; I would see it later that night. But I didn’t need to see it to feel the passion they have for the music. If you are not familiar with Death, they are a band originally out of Detroit. They are, I dare say, one of the first punk bands ever not just the first black punk band. They predate so many of the other punk bands folks know and love, but never got their due until now. Death got their start in 1973. Yes you read it correctly and just now are they are finally where they belong. Kudos to their sons, and all those who helped bring their music to light. They have an amazing story.
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| Death @ Afropunk |
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| Bass! |
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| Guitar! |
After Death I walked over to the other stage to catch Big Freedia. On the other side I ran into my friends
Sol and
Lorraine before trying to find a spot to watch. I’ve never seen Big Freedia in person, but I was expecting a whole lot of ass on the stage because he is the Queen of twerking. There was someone on stage rhyming when I got there who wasn’t very exciting and there really wasn’t a show. So I have to admit I got a little discouraged and left. I was thinking that it was him and later, after seeing some photos I learned that it wasn’t. Damn! Oh well, I missed Big Freedia. My bad. I don’t know who that person was before him, but I wish I had known for real that it wasn’t who I was waiting for.
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| Me and the ever talented Sol at Afropunk |
After walking away from that I headed back to the big field and just wandered through the vendors again for a while. It was going to be a bit before Living Colour came on. As I walked around I ran into my friend
Neycha and her crew. We were talking when all of a sudden we heard something really cool coming from the stage. So we walked over and there was this brotha on stage with three white boys. They were called
Vintage Trouble and this brotha was doing some serious work on stage. He was channeling
Al Green, James Brown and
Sam Cooke all at once! Yes ya’ll it was that deep. There was some serious Pentecostal preaching going on! The brotha sweat through his suit and had the nerve to come out in the audience to boot. Living Colour was up next and knowing what I know about
Corey Glover I knew that the battle of the Pentecostal singing preacher was on. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Haha!!! Vintage Trouble was really great and fun. All church, all the time!
Vintage Trouble left some fire on the stage, but we all knew the inferno was coming. Since today was my day to be a fan I really went in. By the time Living Colour was ready to hit the stage we were joined by
Liza Jessie Peterson and soon
Imani Uzuri was in the crowd with us too. All of us were in full fan mode, but the funny thing about it is, we all knew the guys on stage.
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| Liza, Neycha and the top of my head! |
Right before the show started, Vernon looked out into the audience and recognized those of us that he knew and those that he didn’t. He looked out and opened his heart to the moment. Right then and there I did the same thing. I took that moment to take stock in this musical journey that I’m on. I stopped and took a moment to realize that I know those guys on stage and there was time in my life when that was not even close to being the case. Not even a thought in my mind that it would ever happen.
I will never forget that day in 1989. It was April 1st and I only know this because I Googled it before writing this post. LOL! I’m good, but not that good. Anyway, it was April 1st 1989 when Living Colour appeared on
Saturday Night Live and performed
“Cult of Personality,” and that is the song they opened their Afropunk set with. Also this year is the 25th Anniversary of their Album Vivid and they have been opening all over the world with that song. So as my heart and mind opened as song began I was taken back.
When Living Colour appeared on SNL I was in college and let me tell you it was an event. I was in school in Ohio so for us seeing Living Colour on Saturday Night Live was equivalent to when the folks saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but maybe even better because they were black! Now black folks had been on SNL, but not black folks doing rock! We, meaning a crew of black students, assembled in the Black Cultural Center to watch SNL and waiting for that moment is one I will never forget. They were introduced and then Vernon started in with that guitar riff and it was ON! There they were and there was Corey in the damn Body Glove wet suit and multi-colored flying locks. All of them were sporting locked hair, short and long, but locked or twisted and damn it if they weren’t rockin’ hard and they were black and young and black! We were glued to the TV and it was happening and it was amazing. It was a time when you had to be tuned in because you may never see that joint again or you would have to hope they would show it in reruns or maybe someone would tape it on their VCR. But pretty much back then, you had to be there or you missed out and I was not missing out! As I watched these young men do their thing I would have never imagined that any of them would know me and I really would never have thought that they would be my friends. How did this happen? Again I’m not telling this story to name drop or big myself up. I was really just having a moment. My heart was open for sure.
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Living Colour @ Afropunk
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That night Corey sang
“Open Letter (To a Landlord)”, which resonates even more in the every quickly gentrifying Brooklyn. As I walked around Afropunk that day I looked up at the neighboring project buildings. I knew that if the rumor of turning those apartments into condos or co-ops ever came to pass that the days of this festival all the other black festivals that had been moved to the far reaches of Brooklyn, out of the faces of their new white neighbors, would soon be numbered.
“This is my neighborhood.”
Then I started thinking about the whole weekend. The whole reason we were all assembled in this park. I started thinking about why Vernon’s heart was so clearly open. Why I had a tear in my eye. It was all because we were here. We are here. Let me explain what I mean.
In 1989, at least in Ohio, we were hard pressed to find any black rockers.
Fishbone would always come to Columbus and play at The Newport, which was right across the street from campus, and my girl
Mechelle would ALWAYS be there. We had to get it in when the black rockers came to town otherwise it was R&B all day, which was cool too, but sometimes you need to take it up a notch. In 1989, it felt like the numbers were few, but look at what’s happening now. The black weird kids are everywhere and have a space to be who they want to be. I had a bit of hate for Afropunk before the weekend started, but look what happened.
I played a show on Saturday, I met a young lady who was moved by my music, she sees me on Sunday, asks if I can mentor her, and then I see the guys who are one of my many inspirations for me to do what I do, and at least two of them are knowing or unknowingly mentors to me. It’s all full circle, but now there is a place that young people can go to find their people. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the weird kids have not always found each other. We always do. That’s one of the reasons why I came to New York and I surely found my tribe here. But if nothing else, Afropunk is providing folks a place to hear and see black people perform music that is not necessarily in the mainstream, all in one place. If I take a step back and really look at it, it’s a wonderful thing. No Afropunk is not perfect by any stretch, but at the very least it gives young black people a space to see their reflection and know that they are alright. Let them know that there is a network out there and a place to grow their art. Let them know that it’s OK if their music doesn’t sound like Lil’ Wayne or Rihanna.
There is plenty to beef about when it comes on Afropunk. I know some of the beef first hand, but for today I’m putting down the hate and giving thanks for an amazing weekend.
Living Colour killed the show. They really blazed the stage. That band has been through a lot. They are grammy winners, they have toured the world and are still doing it, they broke up and found a way to heal and get back together, and now they are eligible to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If you see them today, you can see that they enjoy playing together and it’s not just some guys getting together on a money trip. They all have their own projects outside of the band, which is also a beautiful thing. It was the best way to end my day. Thank you Vernon, Corey, Will & Doug!
I could have stayed for Questlove and Chuck D, but I was beat and I totally missed Soul Summit, which was supposed to be my next destination. My feet were hurting and my phone was dead, but I was feeling good.
If I had a dollar for everyone who asked me that day and other days why I wasn’t playing or haven't played Afropunk I would be able to pay a couple of bills. Maybe one day
blaKbüshe will play the daytime portion of the festival, but until then I’m glad I put down my sword and shield and went to the show. It was one of the best days I had all summer. Thanks Trevor I think I owe a part of it to you.
