Afropunk Harlem Takeover

Tunde of TVOTR, Bilal, Robert Glasper & more playing Afropunk Harlem Takeover

Afropunk is celebrating Black History Month with a week-long takeover in Harlem, beginning on February 21 and culminating with a big concert at The Apollo on February 25. The takeover will include “live musical performances, film screenings, comedy shows, jam sessions and frank discussions on identity, art and protest.”

That Apollo concert is billed as “Afropunk’s ‘Unapologetically Black,’ The African-American Songbook Remixed.” It’s got creative and musical direction by Robert Glasper, with Igmar Thomas & the Revive Big Band, and special guests include TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Bilal, Toshi Reagon, Staceyann Chin, and more surprise guests. Tickets for that show are available.

There are a few other things on the music side too. There’s ‘A Kick in the Head – Punk Rock Showcase’ on 2/21 at The Shrine (performers TBA). On 2/2 at Harlem Stage, it’s Tamar-Kali’s Demon Fruit Blues. Here’s the description:

Connecting the dots between modern day rock, gospel, blues and original African rhythms, Tamar-Kali’s Demon Fruit Blues is a multidisciplinary work that explores and deconstructs gender binaries, patriarchy and womanhood by examining the origins of misogyny. Through the use of music and movement by Ase Dance Theatre Collective, Demon Fruit Blues interrogates the ‘curse of womanhood’ in Judeo-Christian ideology and how this perception of the female body reverberates in modern day western society, in an effort to heal a culture of “unspoken” influences that psychically severs the ties between history and culture. This work-in-progress showing will be preceded by the screening of a short film and followed by a panel discussion with the Tamar-kali, Adia Whitaker, Ashley Brockington, Feminista Jones and more.

There’s an open jam session, #TheShed, happening that same day (2/22) at Gin Fizz Harlem.

There’s also a comedy show on 2/23 at Ginny’s Supper Club with Sasheer Zamata and Gina Yashere, and a handful of other events. Check out the full schedule below.

Speaking of TV on the Radio, they recently played the David Bowie and Prince celebration at Yale University called “Blackstar Rising & The Purple Reign” and covered “Nothing Compares 2 U.” You can watch that here:

apollo-harlem-takeover

AFROPUNK THE TAKEOVER – HARLEM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE
BLACK JOY AS AN EXPRESSION OF RESISTANCE AND LIBERATION
OPENING PANEL DISCUSSION
7:00PM, FREE (Suggested donation $10)
2031 5th Ave, New York, NY 10035

This is the kickoff event to celebrate AFROPUNK’s Harlem takeover and what better way to launch into this historic moment than to discourse around the diverse expression and cultural significance of Black Joy! With the inundating images in the media today around stereotypical tropes of “Blackness” it is imperative to explore the creative resistance, expression and liberation housed in our authentic joy-on our own terms, in our own words. We invite you to join our panel discussion as we explore the ways our various institutions/movements have and continue to tell our stories and introduce a counter-narratives that authentically celebrates who we are as a people. This conversation is about illuminating & celebrating the tools that have helped to heal, activate, and keep our communities unapologetically liberated in our cultural expression!

Panel to include:
Zoe Kravitz, Actress & Musician
Larry Ossei-Mensah, ARTNOIR
Sade Lythcott , CEO National Black Theatre
Matthew Morgan, Co-Founder AFROPUNK

Moderated by Andre Singleton, Very Black Project

A KICK IN THE HEAD
PUNK ROCK SHOWCASE
THE SHRINE
Doors Open at 8:30PM, $10 (tickets)
2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, New York, NY 10030

Participating musicians will be announced closer to the date.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
HARLEM STAGE
TAMAR-KALI: DEMON FRUIT BLUES – A WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWING
7:30PM,$15 (tickets)
150 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031

Connecting the dots between modern day rock, gospel, blues and original African rhythms, Tamar-Kali’s Demon Fruit Blues is a multidisciplinary work that explores and deconstructs gender binaries, patriarchy and womanhood by examining the origins of misogyny. Through the use of music and movement by Ase Dance Theatre Collective, Demon Fruit Blues interrogates the ‘curse of womanhood’ in Judeo-Christian ideology and how this perception of the female body reverberates in modern day western society, in an effort to heal a culture of “unspoken” influences that psychically severs the ties between history and culture. This work-in-progress showing will be preceded by the screening of a short film and followed by a panel discussion with the Tamar-kali, Adia Whitaker, Ashley Brockington,Feminista Jones and more.

THE SHED: OPEN JAM SESSION – AFROPUNK EDITION
GIN FIZZ HARLEM
9pm-12am, FREE (RSVP)

Ranked one of New York City’s “Top 5 Jam Sessions,” #TheShed is a bi-weekly jam session. The session is the brainchild of Grammy nominated producer/engineer AnuSun. The Shed provides a taste of the New Renaissance happening in Harlem and serves as a launchpad for emerging talent. Join us for the special AFROPUNK Edition of The Shed, you never know who might come through!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017
BEARING WITNESS AS PROTEST
THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM
6PM-8:30PM, $7 GA/ $3 Students (tickets)
144 West 125th Street, New York, New York

Explore current and historical expressions of dissent in contemporary art on the occasion of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s current exhibitions The Window and The Breaking of the Window and Circa 1970. The evening will begin with a guided walkthrough of the exhibitions followed by a public dialogue on bearing witness as an act of protest as well as the actions needed to create the path ahead.

AFROPUNK & JILL NEWMAN PRODUCTIONS present
AFROPUNK COMEDY featuring Sasheer Zamata and Gina Yashere
GINNY’S SUPPER CLUB (at Red Rooster)
Doors: 9:00PM; Show: 9:30PM, $20 ADV/$25 DOS (tickets)
310 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY 10027

AFROPUNK and Jill Newman Productions are collaborating to present – AFROPUNK Comedy featuring SNL’s Sasheer Zamata and Nigerian-UK comic Gina Yashere. A comedian, actress, writer and current cast member on Saturday Night Live, Sasheer Zamata, performs improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (with BUCKY and Doppelganger) and stand up at colleges and clubs across the country. She has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, ABC’s Would You Fall For That, and This American Life. Gina Yashere is a stand up Comedian and TV star from the UK that broke onto the American scene in NBC’s Last Comic Standing. She has appeared on Def Comedy Jam. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Nightly Show on Comedy Central and in her 1 hour Stand Up Special on Showtime, Skinny B*tch.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2017
AFROPUNK & THE CINEMA AT THE MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER present a screening of
THE TALK – RACE IN AMERICA
MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER
6:30PM; $10 (tickets)
343 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY, 10027

The Talk – Race in America – a documentary about the increasingly common conversation taking place in homes and communities across the country between parents of color and their children, about how to behave if they are ever stopped by the police. The film profiles, Dr. Christi Griffin, Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, who was a 12-year-old boy killed by the Cleveland police while playing with a toy gun in a local park; Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President and retired New York police officer, Kenya Barris, creator/executive producer of Peabody Award-winning ABC series black-ish; Nas, musician/activist, John Singleton, director/screenwriter/producer; and Charles Blow,New York Times Op-Ed columnist.

MAD FREE & AFROPUNK present The Hair Tales: An Appropriation Conversation
Harlem Stage
7:30pm; $15 (tickets)
150 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031

Cultural Critic and Image Activist Michaela Angela Davis and Comedian, Actress, Provocateur, Blogger, Natural Hair Geek and creator of the YouTube sensation “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls,” Franchesca Ramsey engage in a candid and kinky communal conversation about Black Girl hair culture in the age of #BlackGirlMagic & #BlackLivesMatter. Designed as a Pan-African Parisian Salon, the evening will feature improvisational braiding by Ancestral Strands, exclusive set pieces by Enitan Vintage, cocktails and you.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017
THE APOLLO THEATER
AFROPUNK: “UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK” THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN SONGBOOK REMIXED, A CELEBRATION OF BLACK PROTEST MUSIC
7:30PM, Tickets start at $33.50 (tickets)
253 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027

Creative & Musical Direction by Robert Glasper
Featuring Special Guests
Bilal, Toshi Reagon, Staceyann Chin, Jill Scott, Tunde Adebimpe (TV ON THE RADIO) and more

AFROPUNK pays homage to black protest music and iconic and contemporary artists who have celebrated the power of being unapologetically black.