San Antonio Punk Festival Receives Cease and Desist Letter From Afropunk
Style Magazine Newswire | 4/19/2019, 8:48 a.m.
Afropunk, the organization that puts on the festival by the same name, has threatened legal action against a San Antonio group over the use of the word Afropunk. On March 30, do-it-yourselfers Xingonas in the Pit put on San Antonio’s first black punk festival, Afropunk in the Pit. The festival featured performances by Texas-based, black-fronted punk bands as well as a screening of the 2003 film Afro-Punk. The film’s director Jeff Spooner also did a Q&A following the movie screening. Spooner co-founded the Afropunk Festival, but left in 2007. After the event, Xingonas in the Pit received a letter from Afropunk dated April 4, demanding that they stop using the trademark Afropunk. The letter from Afropunk’s lawyer, Gerard M. Anthony, reads, in part: “Our trademark serves as an important distinctive representation of our products or services as well as the goodwill of our company.
