A Feministing Jamz guide to the AFROPUNK fest

Are you hype about the AFROPUNK fest this weekend in Brooklyn? We are! And we know lots of you are as well, so we thought we’d put together a quick little list for you of interesting artists to make your feminist hearts burst of joy.

In no particular order….

Tecla

Tecla won my heart with this song about people who suck. These include: abusive men, wealthy kids who waste their money, and people who look the other way. Don’t look the other way!

Valerie June

Valerie June is a national fucking treasure.  While I’m generally not the kind of gay who likes guitar-playing singer songwriters, I make an exception for Valerie June’s blend of blues, folk, soul, and country. “Workin’ Woman’s Blues” is one of my favorites of hers.

A Tribe Called Red

A Tribe Called Red is an electronic music group who blend elements of hip hop with traditional First Nations music. You might have caught when DJ Ushka pointed us to a track of theirs about the Idle No More movement that she included in one of her mixes. I really love the track “Sisters,” and the video is amazing — showing indigenous women laughing, dancing, living their lives, resisting in the face of so much wackness. When so much of what we hear about indigenous women is tragic, or the representations we see have indigenous folks stuck in the past, this feels revolutionary, and I find this spirit in all their music.

Lianne La Havas

Lianne La Havas writes beautiful songs, and has the most gorgeous voice. Don’t sleep on her!

Shabazz Palaces

Shabazz Palaces is an experimental hip hop duo coming from Seattle. They just put out Lese Majesty — which is dope — but I love this video, from their 2011 album Black Up, which includes interesting portrayals of street harassment, as well as some of the tensions and struggles of immigrant mothers and daughters.

THEESatisfaction

Also from Seattle, THEESatisfaction is not to be missed. This video is all about queer femmes of color, and it makes me so happy.

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell Ndegeocello has been out there and queer and sexy for a long time. What can I even say? A feminist classic.

Princess Nokia

Princess Nokia is newer on the scene, but I like where her stuff is going, and she gives a legit live performance. Here she is rocking it with Mykki Blanco.

Juliana Huxtable

A member of the art collective House of Ladosha, Juliana Huxtable is a nightlife queen who is asking herself all the right questions about queer nightlife: “Why are so many gay male spaces hostile to lesbians? Why are so many of the raves in Bushwick filled with bros who are dancing to vogue beats but there’s three black queens in the room? Where was the nightlife run by women, cis, trans or otherwise?” YES! She’s doing a DJ set, and I’m guessing it’ll be one you’ll wanna catch.

Gordon Voidwell

Remember when we interviewed Gordon Voidwell and he was a totally awesome and smart feminist babe with amazing music? Yeah. Don’t miss him.

Cakes Da Killa

We love us some Cakes here at Feministing Jamz. No big surprise here.

Sza

I’ve never seen Sza live, but I DID spend a couple of months kind of only listening to her latest, Z. And it was awesome.

Jasmine Solano

Jasmine Solano is a DJ and music-maker. I love this track because I think of it as an anti-street harassment anthem. It was a hard choice though, between that and her part in Gnucci’s global feminist anthem Goodah.

As always, there’s much more left to explore. I mean, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings? Alice Smith? And more?

Lori and I are planning to be there. Say hi if you spot us!

Verónica is ready to do this thing!