Scenes from Afropunk 2023's weekend of music, style and culture in Greenpoint

Teyana Taylor, Vince Staples, Flying Lotus, and Joey Bada$$ were among the more than 25 acts to perform

After years of partying in Fort Greene’s Commodore Barry State Park, Brooklyn’s annual Afropunk Festival, a fierce and glorious celebration of “Blackness, community and art,” posted up in a new venue this past weekend, transforming the Greenpoint Terminal Market by the water into a what the organizers called a “Circus of Soul.”

Bushwick resident Shae Roberts, attending her seventh Afropunk and resplendent in an outfit “inspired by Grace Jones and the 1970s,” was a fan of the new setting. “I am really loving the new venue,” she told Brooklyn Magazine. “It looks great, and it’s a great photo op because everybody looks really good under the sun and by the water. It’s perfect.”

Photo by Scott Lynch

More than 25 DJs, bands and solo acts kept the crowd moving (or simply blissed out) throughout the weekend, performing on two stages located at opposite ends of the concrete expanse. In addition to headliners Flying Lotus, Teyanna Taylor, Vince Staples and Joey Bada$$, the undercard was stacked with notable sets.

Joey Bada$$ (photo by Scott Lynch)

Cleo Reed fully embraced the festival’s circus theme in her guitar-driven performance.

Cleo Reed (photo by Scott Lynch)

Rapper Baby Tate strutted about the main stage in a gorgeous pink getup.

Baby Tate (photo by Scott Lynch)

Tobe Nwigwe brought out a troupe of dancers, his two young children and Earthgang member Johnny Venus in angel’s wings. And Dreamer Isioma tried to get a mosh pit going at one point, but the crowd just kind of ran around in a circle.

Toby Nwigwe with Johnny Venus, in wings, of Earthgang (photo by Scott Lynch)

Dozens of vendors selling fashion and wellness products set up shop in a corporate-sponsored area of the grounds, and a couple of big brands fielded popular activations between the two stages. There was lots of food and booze on hand as well.

Plus, snakes (photo by Scott Lynch)

Afropunk started in 2005 at Brooklyn Academy of Music, as a kind of extension of James Spooner’s seminal 2003 film “Afro-Punk” about the Black punk subculture. The blog Black-Owned Brooklyn has an excellent look at those early days if you want to dive deeper.

Photo by Scott Lynch

But while music is the main attraction, the festival has always been as much about community, and providing a safe space for Black creative expression. “I moved to New York about a year-and-a-half ago, so this is my second Afropunk, of hopefully many, many to come,” said Ose Arheghan.

“When I was growing up in the Midwest, like a decade ago, I would see the pictures from Afropunk on Tumblr and wished that I looked like that. I was a young punk, and it’s really cool now to be in this space and be myself, and have other people who look like me, dress like me. We’re not ‘the other’ here. We are the event. And I think that’s beautiful.”