In the era of homogeneous, big festival lineups, one festival continuously curates one of the country's best lineups year after year – Afropunk. Today, Afropunk announced the lineups for both their Brooklyn and Atlanta festivals.
Headliners for Afropunk Festival Brooklyn include Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Miguel, The Internet, Jaden Smith, Tyler, The Creator, Jamila Woods and more. The festival in Brooklyn will take place Aug. 25 - 26. Headliners for Afropunk Atlanta aka Carnival of Consciousness include Little Simz, N.E.R.D., Benjamin Booker, The Internet, and more to be announced. The Atlanta festival will take place Oct. 13-14.
The Afropunk organizers also shared this year's theme for the festival: The People Resist.
This resistance is not new! We, the people who have lived under the thumb of white supremacy, gender inequality, homophobia, environmental rape and economic apartheid have always known that when the world is an outrage, the sensible thing to do is defy it. Resistance is survival, not just a hashtag. But if it's going to be a social media call to political arms, let's make that fucker count! This resistance is not only about the toxicity of sick men in power. We, the people recognize the laws they codify are pornographic fever-dreams of late-stage capitalism and white patriarchy, its bottom-lines built on the broken backs of individual human rights, and on development for the few but cheap plastic lives for those segregated from society. Our moral teachers taught us the ethics on which to build this fight, and our punk roots gave us the strategy. This resistance is not nihilism. When the People Resist, our collective "No" is actually "Yes" - to all, for all. We stake everybody's claim, rejecting old colonial privileges. When the People Resist, it is inclusive, not exclusive -our arms open to the oppressed, and a finger in the air to the oppressors. We respond to the absurdity of their limited vision. When the People Resist, it is unity, not division - loud voices speaking together, even if they aren't all saying the same thing. We reject the purity of agreement, for the righteousness of our displeasure. The People Resist...because there's nothing else left to do now.
Here's the full lineup:
