Afropunk Presents BLACK SPRING Hosted by Santana Caress Benitez

Genre-defying, mainstream-disrupting cultural institution AFROPUNK is thrilled to announce this year's virtual initiative: "Black Spring" on April 23, 2021 at 4 pm ET. "Black Spring" combines AFROPUNK's legacy of inclusion, activism, and highlighting the best new talent in the world with a focus on Afro-Latine and Afro-Caribbean artists and culture for 2021.

Performers include Rico Nasty, Seu Jorge, Seafoam Walls, DAWERXDAMPER, Black Pantera, ChocQuibTown, Projexx, and JUP DO BAIRRO, with the entire festival being hosted by Santana Caress Benitez. Music fans can experience the festival worldwide via planetafropunk.com.

This year, for the first time, AFROPUNK will team up with NPR Music to present the kick-off video performance Tiny Desk Meets AFROPUNK on npr.org/music and YouTube.

Since NPR Music launched the Tiny Desk concert series in 2008 more than 1000 performances have been recorded and they attract more than 57 million viewers each month unifying a passionate community around the love of music discovery. This year NPR Music has been producing Tiny Desk (home) concerts; the latest iteration of Tiny Desk concerts in response to ongoing social-distancing measures. The series curates performances from around the world, with the same Tiny Desk spirit - stripped-down sets in an intimate setting - just in a different space. The Tiny Desk Meets AFROPUNK program will include performances by ChocQuibTown, Calma Carmona, Luedji Luna, and Nenny, and will be hosted by AFROPUNK vet Jorge "Gitoo" Wright."

"'Black Spring' is a moment to celebrate our African lineage and not allow the exploits of colonialism to further separate us whether we speak Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, or Dutch. We are Black." says Tina Farris, producer of AFROPUNK's "Black Spring." "Celebrating with Tiny Desk is the perfect partner for this expansion in highlighting Afro-Latine and Afro-Caribbean voices. NPR has always been a purveyor of world music, and we are excited about expanding the AFROPUNK tenants with their audience."

"NPR Music is thrilled to bring a collaboration with Afropunk and Tiny Desk to our audience, specifically in joining their 'Black Spring' festival to celebrate and amplify Afro-Latinx and Afro-Caribbean artists," said Abby O'Neill, ‎NPR Music's producer of the collaboration. "Afropunk has excelled at artist curation and lifting up new voices throughout their global community. With our combined reach, we can expand the impact and celebration for this special edition of the Tiny Desk."

"Black Spring," like its name, is set to be an experience of revitalization, reclamation, revolution, and renewal. Inspired by the idea of claiming one's freedom, as well as the change in season, the vibrancy of the Afro-Latin musical community, "Black Spring" will be a virtual festival like no other this year.

"Black Spring" is AFROPUNK's clarion call to the Afro-Latine and Afro-Caribbean communities to claim, revel, and celebrate in their Blackness without shame or fear; to be seen without the lens of "Otherness" and to fully, wholly embrace the intersectionality of existence and identity.

The festival will be an evolving, cultural space from which to inspire and create discourse, and will focus on the tenets of AFROPUNK's ongoing core mission: to propel, support, affirm, and learn from these communities at large.

"Black Spring" is produced by industry veterans Anthony Maddox, Tina Farris, and Dominic Pearson in conjunction with Cyrus Dennis, Allen T. Lamb, Sango Amoda, Shauna Gray, and Anita Asante.