James Spooner in conversation with Johnny Damm on AFROPUNK, anger, and other things

Join us for a conversation with filmmaker and graphic novelist James Spooner about his latest graphic novel, moderated by cartoonist Johnny Damm. It Starts with Anger: A Punk Beginning. An AFROPUNK Ending tells the origin story of the multi-million-dollar AFROPUNK festival—beginning not with big stages or brand sponsorship, but with one mixed-race teenager’s search for belonging in the nineties New York City punk scene.

RSVP to receive a link to view Afro-Punk (2003, dir. James Spooner) before the event.

https://tinyurl.com/SpoonerNov13

The conversation will be followed by a book signing by Spooner. Local author and punk historian John Malkin will also be signing his new book, Punk Spirit! – An Oral History of Punk Rock, Spirituality, and Liberation, and Johnny Damm will have his latest comic, I’m a Cop: Real Life Horror Comics No. 3 also available.

James Spooner is an award winning graphic novelist, filmmaker and tattoo artist. His debut graphic novel, The High Desert was named “Best of 2022” by Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and The New York Public Library. The High Desert is the 2023 recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Cartoonist Studio Prize. Spooner co-edited an anthology of Black punk writers and comic creators entitled, Black Punk Now. Available now, the book was named in the top 10 Music Books of 2023 by Pitchfork, top 5 Music Books from the Guardian and received a Kirkus star. Pantheon has acquired his forthcoming book It Starts With Anger, set for publication in Aug of 2026. He was recently commissioned to adapt a story by the Scottish Book Trust and is regular contributor to RazorCake Magazine.

Spooner directed the seminal documentary Afro-Punk which premiered at national and international film festivals, including Toronto International and The American Black Film Festival. James also co-founded the AfroPunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands around the world. Spooner’s work has been recounted in various publications, including NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Vice, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, MTV, NBC News and Variety. He was a recipient of the ReNew Media Rockefeller Grant. He is a guest curator for the Broad Museum in Los Angeles and the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas and previously programmed for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. James continues to screen Afro-Punk around the world, giving talks on punk, comics and Black identity.

Johnny Damm’s comics include “I’m a Cop”: Real-Life Horror Comics, which has been featured in The Washington Post, Boing Boing, and In These Times and named in The Comics Journal’s best comics of the year. Damm is also the author of the acclaimed graphic novels Failure Biographies and The Science of Things Familiar, both published by The Operating System. His comics, prose, and visual poetry have appeared in Guernica, Poetry, The Offing, and elsewhere. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.