Changing of the Afropop Guard

After three fantastic years at Afropop Worldwide, I have accepted a new opportunity at Scholastic Media's Interactive Products Department. I can't even begin to wrap my head around the unbelievable amount of musical experiences I leave behind at Afropop. I feel proud of the website advances I oversaw in my time--from our move to a dedicated server all the way to Afropop.org's recent homepage redevelopment. It's also been fulfilling to see Afropop expand into new social media realms (including this blog). Most of all, I leave with a sense that I will never in my life work with a group as dedicated to musical discovery and enjoyment as the Afropop Worldwide team lead by Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre.



Saxon Baird in the Afropop Office


Saxon Baird will be taking over for me after I leave on February 14th. He's been with us since September, and was most recently made a part-time Operations Manager in mid-January. Under his watch, all of our social media offerings have gained a consistent voice and high level of quality. He's mastered our idiosyncratic website back-end. And, if any of you have come to enjoy Afropop via Facebook, you can thank Saxon! Most of all, he understands our mission and our audience, and is sincerely committed to both.

I'll be very excited to see what Saxon and Afropop does next, as I transition from behind-the-scenes to an eager audience member.

--Matt Payne
Outgoing Senior Producer, New Media & Managing Editor, http://www.afropop.org/