new book

The first time that artist and filmmaker James Spooner heard Patti Smith’s song “Rock n Roll N—,” he cringed and reflected on the years of racism, microaggressions and abuse he dealt with as a young Black punk rocker in California’s high desert and later, New York.

According to Spooner’s new book, “It Starts With Anger,” this moment of reflection is a catalyst that prompts him to pursue a closer examination of the experiences and challenges Black people face in punk rock and alternative music scenes that are predominantly white.

“If there was such a thing as a ‘Rock n Roll N—’ Patti Smith wasn’t going to be the one to define it. Right then, I decided I was going to make a movie,” Spooner writes in his book.

In 2003, Spooner started working on a documentary called “Afro-Punk,” which took him across the country as he interviewed Black artists, musicians and fans to talk about their experiences in punk rock. “Afro-Punk” starts by calling out Smith’s controversial song before diving into what it means to be Black in a music scene intended to welcome outsiders, but which nonetheless alienates and projects harmful values toward people who are not white.

“I don’t think she’s a bad person, I think she’s a white person who was trying to be edgy and then just like doubled down her whole career,” Spooner told The Times. “I’m all for and have always been understanding of people who make mistakes, people should have an opportunity to correct themselves.”

The punk rock documentary is being rereleased this month after Spooner launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to remaster the film. The rerelease coincides with the publication of Spooner’s new book, “It Starts With Anger,” which covers the author’s personal history, the creation of the documentary, the larger Afropunk brand (it does not use a hyphen like the film), and the eventual demise of his brainchild at the hands of corporate ventures. “Afro-Punk” will premiere in Los Angeles and New York, with a special screening and book talk on Sunday at the Skirball Cultural Center with former S.O.A. and Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins.

“Young people at the time needed it,” Spooner says about his documentary “Afropunk.” They needed that connection to see that there were other young Black punk rockers, they needed to hear from them and know that they had common experiences.”

(Lisa Nola )

“Before there was anything negative attached to it and before there was any corporate interest attached to it, people saw the movie and were like, ‘Oh, that’s my story, I guess I’m an Afropunk and didn’t even know it,’ and then they started calling themselves that,” Spooner said. “I helped define an experience for a group of people in the underground, I inadvertently helped to define an experience for a lot of people who feel othered and ostracized.”

Spooner, who upheld punk’s DIY ethos by shooting, producing, directing and editing the entire project himself, recently regained the rights to his film after a contentious years-long legal battle against his former business partner, Matthew Morgan, and Essence Ventures, the current owners of the Afropunk brand.

“The way that it all turned out in the end, it’s like, not everybody gets to see the long arc of justice in their lifetime, but to be so hurt and slighted and then watch karma do its thing is like, why waste time with being pissed off anymore? There are still things that I wished wouldn’t have happened, but I’m lucky in the end,” the Afropunk founder said.

After Spooner made his documentary, he realized how much the film resonated with Black punks who yearned for community and acceptance. Damon Locks, a visual artist and musician who was featured in the documentary and later worked as a publicist for the Afropunk festival, said he was “really impressed” with the film when it first came out, and that “James’ instincts were correct” when it came to the vision and execution.

“Young people at the time needed it, they needed that connection to see that there were other young Black punk rockers, they needed to hear from them and know that they had common experiences,” he said.

Eager to extend the reach of “Afro-Punk” beyond the documentary, Spooner began organizing a series of DIY underground punk shows known as “The Liberation Sessions,” with the goal of developing this concept into a major festival. He also decided to enter a business relationship with Morgan, who offered to manage Spooner’s creative affairs and help him take “Afro-Punk” to the next level.

According to Spooner, Morgan wanted to bring in corporate sponsors and feature music genres outside of punk to generate more interest and maximize profits. Spooner said he reluctantly compromised, yet after several years of working with Morgan, Spooner grew disillusioned with what Afropunk the festival became.

Maurice “Moe” Mitchell, vocalist for hardcore band Cipher and national director of the Working Families Party, was featured in the documentary and performed at several Afropunk shows and festivals. He said what happened with Afropunk is “a tale as old as time” and Morgan being outside of the movement led to “moneyed interests” altering what Spooner had created.

“At some point, those interests figure out how to co-opt, how to monetize, how to profit, how to take over this thing and it becomes a shell of itself, no longer owned or operated by the original originators, just a product or a marketing scheme for some company,” Mitchell said. “And that is rinse and repeat what happens to really good art and really good movements, and it’s what happened with Afropunk.”

By 2008, Spooner decided he wanted to walk away. He moved to Los Angeles and signed over the Afropunk rights and trademark to Morgan.

“My priority was to the kids … and I didn’t want for them to not have Afropunk just because I was over it, just because I moved on to the other side of the country, I could have just been like, ‘F— you, everything’s in my name, if you want it, sue me,’ I could have done that and I probably would have won because everything is in my name,” the punk filmmaker said. “I also was incredibly broke, I was not only broke when I moved to L.A., I was like $20,000 in debt on credit cards, so it was not like I was in a good place to continue this thing.”

As “Afro-Punk” returns to screens in Los Angeles and New York, Spooner leans into punk’s rebellious ethos, reclaiming his work and spotlighting Black liberation in loud, uncompromising ways.

(Lisa Nola )

In 2020, Spooner sued Morgan for failing to make contractual annual payments and failing to observe a clause in their 2010 agreement that mandated that if more than 50% of the company was sold, Spooner was entitled to a share of the profit. In 2020, Essence Ventures acquired the Afropunk LLC, but Spooner was not made aware of the sale. After a complicated legal battle against both Morgan and Essence Ventures, Spooner settled, successfully recovering the rights to the film in 2025, which he says was more important to him than financial compensation.

Representatives for Essence Ventures did not immediately return requests for comment.

“I didn’t start ‘Afro-Punk’ with money in mind, I wanted people to see my film,” Spooner said. “I wanted people to see my film, and then people saw the film, and then I wanted those people to stay in the room together and become friends, and all of that happened.”

Mitchell, who ended up becoming friends with Spooner after participating in the documentary, said he is “very happy” that Spooner “came out vindicated” in the legal struggle. The Cipher frontman believes “Afro-Punk” is an important documentary that shows “what it means to be a person of color in America,” and which makes visible the identity issues Black people experience beyond the punk rock community.

“That’s also the story of Black people when we lean into our liberation, right?” Mitchell said. “Like we are expressing ourselves in very loud and uncompromising ways that challenge the status quo and so I’m really happy that this film is coming out because this is a moment where we need as many people, as many Black people, to lean into who we are in loud and uncompromising ways, because we have a whole political structure that is demanding our compromise.”

As Spooner celebrates the release of his new book and the premiere of his remastered film — which he says still needs distribution — he hopes that he can continue shedding light on the Black experience and sharing the legacy of what he created as a young Black punk rocker.

“It’s wild to me that I made something when I was 25 that people still care about, and I hope that it keeps reaching another generation and proves itself to be valuable in some kind of way,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Democrats have spent nearly two years trying to move past the 2024 presidential election. Now, Jill Biden’s new memoir is forcing them to relive it.

Her new book, “View from the East Wing,” which comes out Tuesday, is already drawing sharp rebukes from top Democrats, some of whom say it is a poorly timed and misleading account of the events that led to the demise of her husband’s presidency.

“Unhelpful … Ripping open a healing scab is never helpful,” John Morgan, a Florida trial attorney who was a major fundraiser for Biden’s 2024 campaign, told The Times. “In my opinion, she was the main problem. She loved the life and didn’t want it to end.”

Those type of frustrations erupted last week as the former first lady began promoting her book, including in a sit-down interview with CBS News airing Sunday, in which she said she thought the sitting president was having a stroke as she watched the 2024 presidential debate.

“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Biden said. The moment “scared me to death,” she added.

For Democrats who had a similar reaction in real time, but who spent months being told by the Biden campaign that their concerns were overblown, her remarks landed like a gut punch. With the midterms around the corner, some bemoaned that Biden was relitigating a sore subject — particularly the question of who knew what about Biden’s aging and cognitive decline.

“What I care about is what happens going forward,” Dan Pfeiffer, a host of “Pod Save America,” a popular progressive podcast, said on the show Thursday. “What bothers me the most is not the timeline of events, but whether Democratic leaders now will ever reckon with the massive breach of trust that came because of how all of that was handled.”

Meghan Hays, a former White House aide to Joe Biden, said on C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” that although she understands that Jill Biden is trying to sell books, her efforts are not helping the party ahead of the midterm elections.

“We have a lot of momentum in our favor … and when we get pulled back into conversations about age and the election in ‘24, it’s never gonna be a good place for Democrats,” Hays said. “I think it is a tough place to be.”

The Democratic Party found itself trapped in a similar dynamic earlier this month, when the Democratic National Committee released a long-awaited, 192-page report dissecting the 2024 loss. The committee’s chairman, Ken Martin, shared the postelection autopsy after coming under intense pressure from Democratic operatives, and apologized for how he handled its release.

The report faulted Kamala Harris and Democrats’ focus on “identity politics” but did not address Biden’s decision to seek reelection amid health concerns and the rushed selection of Harris to replace him on the ticket.

In her book, the former first lady writes that her goal is to be able to “set the record straight” about what happened during the debate and the months that followed that led to President Trump’s return to the White House, according to the Atlantic, which obtained a copy of the book ahead of its release.

At one point, she writes that she even suspected her husband may have been inadvertently impaired after taking cough syrup. In the CBS interview, Biden maintained that she never saw any signs of cognitive decline while he was the sitting president.

“He was the same, the essence of the same Joe Biden, but yeah, he was slowing down. He was getting older,” she said. “You know, it’s a very intense job. I think it ages you — quickly.”

Morgan, the former Biden fundraiser, said he does not believe the first lady is telling the truth in her memoir.

“If you like fiction it’s good,” Morgan said. He added that her claim that she had never witnessed her husband act in a similar way since the debate “defies the smell test.”

“His keys should have been taken long before that night,” Morgan said.

Michael LaRosa, a former press secretary for the first lady, called Democrats’ reaction to the new memoir “pretty grim.”

“There is a deep reservoir of frustration among ‘formers’ who believe she enables the culture around her and the President rather than challenging it,” LaRosa wrote. “So now they seem to be challenging her.”

Although many Democrats are publicly expressing their annoyance at the conversation Biden has resurfaced, others do not see the former first lady’s comments having an effect on the upcoming elections.

“This is not going to be part of a conversation in the election. It’s going to be part of a conversation in Washington because that is what Washington does, but this is not going to move the needle in New Hampshire or other states where it matters,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who ran a pro-Biden super PAC during the 2020 election cycle.

Schale was blunt: “She is selling books.”

Even if that is the case, Republicans are taking notice.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Trump appeared gleeful to note that Biden was “finally admitting” that she did not know what was wrong with her husband during “our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate.”

The president lamented that the former first lady did not compliment his performance.

“In other words, as many have asked, did my strong performance in that debate cause him to plain and simple ‘choke,’ leading to his ignominious defeat, or were other reasons the cause? Nobody else knows the answer to that, BUT I DO!!!” Trump wrote.