Coming in August from Pantheon, It Starts With Anger by James Spooner tells the origin story of the Afropunk Festival.
Spooner, an illustrator, filmmaker, and tattoo artist, directed the 2003 documentary Afro-Punk, capturing what being a Black punk was like in a predominantly white sub-culture. That led to him co-founding the Afropunk Festival in 2005, before leaving in 2008. It is now a multi-million-dollar brand with annual gatherings in New York, Atlanta, and Miami. In this memoir, Spooner reveals why he left the organization.
It Starts With Anger: A Punk Beginning. An AFROPUNK Ending. is a graphic memoir about a mixed-race teen seeking a place to belong in the 90s New York City punk scene, exploring racism, authenticity, identity, visibility, extremism, and rebellion. It also tackles the tensions arising when an underground culture becomes popular, successful, and corporate. Told non-traditionally, the memoir combines text narrative, illustrations, cartoons, and photos in a zine-inspired approach.
Spooner wrote and illustrated The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere, published by Mariner Books. That volume was named one of the 2022 Top Ten Graphic Novels for Adults by the American Library Association (see “ALA Releases Top Graphic Novels for Adults List“).
It Starts With Anger is on sale August 4, 2026, priced at $32.
Source: ICv2
