Black Punk Means Liberation – Institute for Policy Studies

Probably no musical or cultural art form exists in a more contradictory space than punk. When firing on all cylinders, punk is the ultimate anti: Born out of lower- and middle-class white angst in the United States and the UK, punk at its core is about fighting social norms (small and large) and promoting individual expression. Now six decades old, the primarily youth-led form of resistance and counterculture has had numerous highs and lows, including real moments of political resonance, impact, and consciousness-raising. But it has also been diminished by its institutionalization: commercialized, put into museums, and sometimes reduced in relevance to a jingle for some crappy Big Pharma ad on TV.

For this very reason, punk remains a fragile experiment even today. Despite its often lofty aims, it is still subject to the stereotypes and prejudices that society heaps on other minority communities. These vulnerabilities are probed in a worthy new book, Black Punk Now, edited by the graphic novelist and filmmaker James Spooner and the writer Chris L. Terry. Featuring contemporary fiction, nonfiction, illustrations, and comics, Black Punk Now aims to document a lesser-known area of the community and to give punks—especially Black ones—a wider frame of reference for their shared tradition.

Spooner and Terry deserve kudos for their often thought-provoking and richly entertaining volume. But underlying their book, many unanswered questions remain. Few, if any, of the contributions engage with the rise of the far right in the United States, the attack on the US Capitol, police brutality and killings, the emergence of Black Lives Matter, the persistence of Donald Trump, or the continuing battle over abortion rights. Readers are left to wonder if contemporary punks are still raging in a world with so many political and social flash points.

Read the full article on The Nation

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