AFRO-PUNK: Acclaimed Director and Graphic Novelist Joins Burlington’s Non-Fiction Comic Festival

On October 14th and 15th, James Spooner, the award-winning filmmaker, tattoo artist, and graphic novelist, will be in Burlington to discuss his work at two unmissable events — a Friday night film screening and Saturday book talk — hosted by Fletcher Free Library and the Vermont Folklife Center as part of the Non-Fiction Comics Festival. 

The weekend will kick off with a screening of Spooner’s acclaimed documentary film, ‘Afro-punk,’ at Merrill’s Roxy Cinema in downtown Burlington. The film explores the roles of African Americans within what has historically been an overwhelmingly white punk scene across the United States of America, drawing on “interviews from scores of black punk rockers from all over the United States…​ Afro-Punk explores the lives of black youth within a white punk subculture,” according to Spooner’s website. This screening will take place at 8:30PM on Friday, October 14th, at Merrill's Roxy Cinema, 222 College Street, Burlington, Vermont. The event is sponsored by Smith Buckley Architects, Big Heavy World, and the Vermont International Film Foundation. 

Bobby Hackney, Jr. of Rough Francis. Photo from the Rough Francis Facebook page.

At 2:15 PM the following day, (October 15th) Spooner will be the keynote presenter at the NFCF, discussing his new graphic novel The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. The book is a graphic memoir of growing up biracial in Apple Valley, California, a dusty desert town home to both a thriving punk scene and rampant white supremacy. The book explores his reckoning with these various societal forces, and his journey of finding identity and belonging within the world of Punk. Following the presentation, Spooner will be interviewed by Bobby Hackney Jr., a Burlington-based musician who is the vocalist and frontman for the notable local band Rough Francis.

Spooner’s work has been at the heart of a growing movement to recognize the contributions of African Americans to the punk movement. The film “Afro-Punk” has even inspired a community of fans to start a movement that includes an annual Afropunk festival. In one interview, Spooner commented: “Now there is a fantastic Black and brown underground that's thriving within the punk scene, in a way that had it existed when I made Afropunk, I wouldn't have had to make Afropunk.” More info on James Spooner and his work is available at his website.
The Non-Fiction Comic Festival will be held at Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library, at 235 College Street, from 11AM-6pm. The venue is wheelchair accessible.