The Afropunk Festival (commonly referred to as Afropunk or Afropunk Fest) is an annual arts festival that includes live music, film, fashion, and art produced by black artists. The festival made its debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2005, and has since expanded to other parts of the world. Originally co-founded by James Spooner and Matthew Morgan, the festival was inspired by Spooner's 2003 documentary film Afro-Punk, which spotlighted black punks across America and later culminated in a series of live shows entitled "The Liberation Sessions" co-curated by Spooner and Morgan. The festival originally sought to provide black people an opportunity to build community within the predominantly white punk subculture and to provide a stage for black alternative performers that were n