“Harlem’s sonic playground”: Daphne A. Brooks on “Black Woodstock”

A series of summer performances in Harlem, known as “Black Woodstock,” is the subject of Daphne A. Brooks’ New York Times article, “At ‘Black Woodstock,’ an All-Star Lineup Delivered Joy and Renewal to 300,000,” in which Brooks revives the magical moments of those  soul-stirring Sixties’ concerts in Harlem and connects them to contemporary iterations of black cultural expression sustained in such events as today’s Afropunk festivals.

Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of African-American Studies at Yale University. She is the author of “Liner Notes for the Revolution: Black Feminist Sound Cultures,” forthcoming in 2020 from Harvard University Press.