Last Sunday was one of the pinnacle moments of Red Bull Sound Select’s 30 Days In LA concert series, the Afropunk Fancy Dress Ball. In case you’re unfamiliar with Afropunk, it’s a movement that sprang up around the 2003 film Afro-Punk, a documentary that spotlighted the black punk movement.
Matthew Morgan, who produced the film, eventually began a series of festivals, with his partner Jocelyn Cooper, that embodies the movement and celebrates a diverse, multicultural community of artists, thinkers, and fans.
The Fancy Dress Ball is one in a series of events the movement throws around the world, and last Sunday’s Los Angeles iteration was packed out at Park Plaza Hotel newly re-opened as The MacArthur. The stacked lineup included Byrell The Great, LSDXOXO, Uniiqu3, Mike Q, Cakes Da Killa, HO99O9, and was capped off with a performance from the legendary Big Freedia, Queen of Bounce.
Considering it was Afropunk, and the dress code was formal, there were more than a few attendees whose looks were practically works of art themselves. To capture those moments, illustrator and designer Ilse Valfré did original sketches of some of the most vibrant and stylish people in the crowd. Valfré, who splits her time between LA and Mexico City, has collaborated with Red Bull Sound Select before, including a visual installation star freckle booth at the Charli XCX show earlier this month.
While Valfré is a great designer, her sketches also completely capture the spirit of the people she draws, a rare feat of humanizing in a world of instant, digital gratification. We’re happy to exclusively premiere the sketches below in celebration of all things Afropunk, because really, the spirit of Afropunk isn’t centered around a single event, but a year-round movement.
Jodie Smith
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNF2CGJgQJc/?hl=en
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Ann-Marie Hoang
Follow Valfré on Instagram here. Learn more about Afropunk here.
