kusama pyjamas
Titled for Yayoi Kusama, who is the cat's pyjamas.
Queer Latina Punk Artist Cristy C. Road: The Interview
the new issue of women & performance: ”punk anteriors: genealogy, theory, performance.” it was co-edited by fiona ib ngo and beth stinson and features articles by mimi thi nguyen and kate wadkins, plus a review of alice bag’s book violence girl. this image is by allison hamilton.
ISBN 978-1-935950-05-9
Softcover 6″ x 9″, 240pp
Coming September 2012What Are You Doing Here? investigates how black women musicians and fans navigate the metal, hardcore, and punk music genres that are regularly thought of as inclusive spaces and centered on a community spirit, but fail to block out the race and gender issues that exist in the outside world.
“We can neither reflectively choose our color identity nor downplay its social significance simply by willing it to be unimportant… but our color no more binds us to send a predetermined group message to our fellow human beings than our language binds us to convey predetermined thoughts.”—Amy Gutmann
“Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain.”—Lester Bangs
I’ll be the first to admit that, like any other book, What Are You Doing Here? is partly self-serving. I wanted to find other black women like me: metal, hardcore, and punk fans and musicians that were rabid about the music and culture and adamant about asserting their rightful place as black women within those scenes. I wanted to find other women who put aside the cultural baggage that dictates that we must listen to certain musical styles, and simply enjoy the music that influenced us, not just as black women, but as individuals who grew up in an era when, thanks to technology, a large variety of music is accessible and available to everyone. I found many black women and have shared their stories, but I also realize there is still a lot of work to be done.
Sweet! Looking forward to reading this.
(via fuckyeahbrownandbutch)
Here is a proof copy of my forthcoming book, Urdustan (A Collection of Short Stories). The book will go live on MONDAY and be available for sale, insha’allah. In PRINT only.
Please stay tuned to my blog, website, and Facebook page for information on where you can purchase a copy, and what my book is exactly about. There will also be a new interview and review, so stay tuned. Thanks for your support.
#reppin’ self-published DIY Desi / Deaf / Muslim Punk Authors
(via bad-dominicana)
In early 1979 I carved a linoleum block portrait of Pat Bag, the enchantingly sinister-looking bass player for The Bags, one of the first and most notorious late 70s punk rock bands in Los Angeles. At their earliest performances band members wore bags over their heads, and each was assured anonymity by taking “Bag” as a last name. It was in ‘79 that the band posed for me; soon after Pat left the group and began performing under her own name, Patricia Morrison. She eventually ended up joining The Damned, the first U.K. punk band to have recorded a single, an album, and to have toured the United States. (via » LA Punk ‘79: Pat Bag)
punk rock feminist icon and memoirist ALICE BAG (best known for fronting popular LA band The Bags)
Alice Bag interview. Doing a readings tour for her book Violence Girl atm. Another interview for any riot grrrl followers who’ve never heard of her…
She was Punk before you were Punk
Alice Bag busted up the punk-rock patriarchy in September 1977. At Hollywood’s Masque, she and three female bandmates walked onstage wearing brown paper grocery bags over their heads, with slashes for eyeholes. This was their first headlining show, and they played extremely loud. They called themselves The Bags.
Sure, other L.A. punk bands like The Alleycats and The Eyes had female bassists who occasionally sang a lick or two, but The Bags were the first with a frontwoman — and a bisexual Chicana frontwoman at that. Although the group never recorded a full studio LP — it broke up only a few years after the show — Bag herself retains a long list of admirers.
“[S]he was in one of the bands that got the whole thing started,” Henry Rollins wrote in his L.A. Weekly column last year. “She helped put a lot of females on the stage, where normally only men were allowed.”
Queercore shows became more than just entertainment — they became places to cruise, to network, to take self-defense lessons. (via Queer to the Core )
Queercore artists oral history/interview at OUT mag. Bruce La Bruce, Kaia Wilson, Vaginal Davis, Tribe 8 etc.
Poly Styrene interview 1978 (by chatham43)
i cant believe the interviewer asks her about wearing braces and compares her negatively to Linda Ronstadt. OTOH discusses her approach to style and punk being as derivative as any other genre, which was a big part of her appeal re: not being sidetracked by the more insular ‘uniform anti-conformism’ aspects of punk.
Fatima Al Qadiri was born in Dakar, raised in Kuwait City and is now based in Brooklyn. Working across a bunch of mediums, Al Qadiri is both a visual artist and a producer. With regards to visual art, she takes photographs and collaborates with other artists (she’s a member of the K48 Kontinuum collective) on site-specific installations to which- if we’re not mistaken- she contributes sound designs. With regards to music, she has released several electro albums that are eclectic and feature music that, according to Pitchfork has, centered around the “spectral chanting of traditional Islamic songs in Arabic.” Al Qadiri has created soundtracks for several films and created scores for collaborations with fashion designers. Having exhibited her work around the world, Al Qadiri often uses Middle Eastern customs and rituals as the basis of her work yet reconstructs them with altogether different meanings- both subverting them while simultaneously celebrating them. Make sure to check out her amazing website here (it has awesome Mac-like functionality) and read her great column on global music here.
So I had no idea that somebody uploaded the full bbc doc with Poly Styrene after she died. To watch later.
ditto, never seen it in full before.
“Herstory Repeats:” Kathleen Hanna
Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA
March 30, 2011
I love you for posting this!
O.G. Indian Chick in a Punk Band, Anjali Bhatia - frontwoman of the Voodoo Queens.
1992. Anjali quits as drummer for British Riot Grrl band Mambo Taxi to start her own band with sister Rajni, cousin Anjula, former bandmate Ella Guru, and friend Sunny. It only took one concert for BBC’s most influential DJ, John Peel to take notice and invite the Voodoo Queens to record a Peel Session. They went on to record two more sessions with John Peel and had a few memorable TV appearances before splitting up for good in 1999.
Download the Voodoo Queens first Peel session here
(via deafmuslimpunx)
via Poly Styrene, Lost & Found - Page 1 - Music - New York - Village Voice)
It was meant to be a delicious comeback for the transgressive girl whose defiant 1977 single, “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” fired up Afro-Punk, riot grrrl, and every punk worth their peroxide.
Instead, the return of Poly Styrene became one of pop’s most poignant ironies. Generation Indigo—a bubbly, cuddly, insightful record, her first in seven years—was released on the day her death was announced last week.
The loss of 53-year-old Poly Styrene six months after the death of 48-year-old Ari-Up, the dreadlocked singer-songwriter of the Slits, is a reminder: how few were those brave women who shattered all pre-existing models during U.K. punk’s first wave.This ragtag crew was the first self-determined generation of women musicians, and their influence is incalculable; today, their giddy progeny have stormed the malls with their camouflage, neon fishnets, and combat boots worn with gowns. And while their sounds may resonate differently, today’s alpha women—Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Pink—still ride the whirlwind of independent female energy that shook mid-1970s London.
A nice article, but I didn’t know she’d died. About to cry now.
