It Starts with Anger

“James Spooner lays out a moving story of self-discovery, actualization, and preservation. Set against the backdrop of various evolving punk scenes, we learn about his experiences as a multiracial, first-generation immigrant punk and get to see how they led him to create a documentary that spawned a scene and altered both punk and Black culture dramatically. James is a great storyteller and this is a fantastic read, plus it’s got his comics in it—always a boss move. I was there, this sh*t is real!”—Tunde Adebimpe, TV on the Radio

“James Spooner has created a memoir that belongs in the canon of punk history. This is a story told from the inside, by an extremely like-able, awkward punk rocker who believes music can be a true site of resistance and does the work to make it happen. The road is rocky, but that’s what makes it such a thrilling read.”—Kathleen Hanna, author of Rebel Girl

“In a moment when the societal obsession with cloudy nostalgia can sometimes swallow the concrete facts of history and erase the people who made it, It Starts with Anger is a vital book, one that should live in the archives as both a corrective to misunderstood history, and a manifesto for a path forward, for a world that could still exist for those looking to find it.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

“More than a movie or a festival, the idea of Afro-Punk felt so true that it was as if it had always been around. And as he did with his film, Spooner writes here about his love and struggle for punk in a way we can all instantly see ourselves in. Black punks to the front!”—Ben Passmore, author of Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance

“A mosh pit of a book that punches and slams against the realities of growing up Black and punk in America. This earnest, revealing, and vulnerable memoir leaps headlong off the page as Spooner courageously shares the challenges, triumphs, and failures that he experienced looking for a place in the scene. His chorus echoes the existential questions of punk, questions that underpin all our humanity: Who am I? Where do I fit in? Who are my people? What happens when I grow up?”—Phuc Tran, author of Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In

“James Spooner has a gift for dissecting the small moments of enlightenment that lead to a life spent in punk and hardcore, and how it forever rewires the way your brain sees the world.” —Dan Ozzi, author of Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore

“Searching, visually inventive. . . . Emotionally incisive. . . . It Starts with Anger captures personal evolution and cultural transformation with the specificity and pressure of someone who was there, and who is still reckoning with what it cost.”—Booklist

“A creative and contemplative memoir about how an alienated rocker achieved personal and professional success.”—Kirkus