GREETINGS, BADASSES

Hello! If you've arrived here from Kathleen Hanna + Sini Anderson's killer interview with Badass Digest, thanks for visiting!

Discussing IGGU at a recent presentation in Sheffield, UK

The zine that Ms. Hanna mentioned is International Girl Gang Underground, a collection of stories, artwork, and critical work about DIY feminist cultural production and punk rock today, twenty years after the riot grrrl movement, and in the wake of its legacy. "Today" meaning 2011, when the zine was published.

International Girl Gang Underground (or IGGU) can be found and purchased here:
USA, via Stranger Danger Distro
UK, via Vampire Sushi Distro (not on website but available soon!)
Japan, via Lilmag

Or, you can get it from me in person from me, while meeting up for coffee/delicious treats, or tabling with feminist collective and distro, For the Birds! We're currently in the process of renewing our domain, girlgangunderground.org, but for now you can find us on Tumblr at girlgangunderground.tumblr.com + girlganggigvolume.tumblr.com. We post on Facebook most frequently, and we're on Twitter too.

I've worked with Hanna since 2010 in various capacities, mostly on the Le Tigre tour documentary film, and with Sini Anderson, too, on The Punk Singer.* So humbled to be mentioned by these fantastic feminist artists, and so thrilled with their work on this new film, which just debuted at SXSW.

Feel free to contact me with any questions! I've been doing some talks on zines lately, like the one pictured above at Showroom Cinema in Sheffield--so I'm always seeking collaborators and like-minded peeps in other places.

*(Hanna also exhibited in BIG MOUTH: contemporary feminist voices in art + illustration, a show I co-curated with Lauren Denitzio, in 2011).

SPEAKING AT NYU TONIGHT!

This evening I'll be presenting in NYU's "Gender and Performance" class on zines, and specifically, my zine International Girl Gang Underground. The class has been instructed to author a zine as their final project, so I'll be speaking about my motivations for creating IGGU (with co-editor Stacy Konkiel) as well as leading a zine how-to segment and leaving plenty of time for questions.

I broke out these "Frankenstein" zine pages to show the students--you know the ones, made up of layers of glue, ink, and cut-up paper. The ones you eventually xerox to become your first set of flats. It's interesting to see these pages as objects unto themselves.

It's exciting for me to have the chance to discuss my zine--and zines in general--in an academic context. That said, contact me if you are looking for someone to lead a workshop / presentation / event at your university on these topics!

VIDEO: ZINE CULTURE AT SARAH LAWRENCE

It's like our own version of LIVE! TONIGHT! SOLD OUT!!

Last Tuesday night, I rode the Metro North up to Bronxville to visit Sarah Lawrence for a zine reading hosted by Kate Angell. Kate, a frequent collaborator and friend, recently established a zine collection at my alma mater, and organized the zine reading as a celebration.

I read the introduction to International Girl Gang Underground and one of my favorite pieces from the zine by contributor Katie Crutchfield. My dear friend Cynthia took this video so I could share it with you. I intended to also read my piece "This is a Thank You Song..." but wanted to leave enough space for the other speakers.

Kate and her librarian-partner-in-crime Charlotte Price (who recently moved to the Music Library at Sarah Lawrence) made delicious baked goods, which I thought looked enticing placed next to Stephen Duncombe's Notes from Underground and Cindy Crabb's Doris collection.

AT THE BROOKLYN NIGHT BAZAAR

Hyperallergic will have a booth at this month's Brooklyn Night Bazaar, starting tonight at 5pm and going until Saturday (for more details, see this post). I just whipped up a batch of International Girl Gang Underground zines to peddle at the event! So get yr copy while it's hot. In a way, it's like my zine is opening for Fucked Up?

Note: Check out Hyperallergic's follow-up post on the Bazaar here! Can you spot IGGU?

OCCUPYING & OBSERVING

Foley Square, November 17, 2011

Yesterday I marched in lower Manhattan (starting at Zuccotti Park) for World AIDS Day, with my friend Roz. After the march stopped and the civil disobedience group was arrested, we made our way back to Zuccotti to see if anything else was going on. To our surprise, Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins and Jackson Browne were scheduled to play a free show. We stayed until our toes nearly froze off. I was tweeting the events and the New York Observer posted one of my photos:

On a related note, I recently wrote a piece for Hyperallergic about OCCUPIED: Occupy Wall Street Art Show at Bluesetockings. The piece was also about my personal experience with the movement and my respect for the fact that it disrupts business as usual. Originally called "Occupying Business as Usual," the title didn't make it through the editing process.

The general vibe I’ve been hearing from a lot of people is “I don’t totally agree with the OWS protesters but … ” and then some message of, well, agreement. I have been feeling the same way, but deeply passionate about the space OWS has opened up for dialogue: political, social, economic and artistic.

As cultural critic Jay Smooth said, “It’s just specific enough to catch that basic sentiment that so many people share, and it’s just vague enough to let many people come to it with many different shades of that sentiment.” The OCCUPIED art show is a little like that. 

From political posters of all sorts to handmade signs (like those seen at Zuccotti and in the streets) to more traditional art pieces, OCCUPIED was clearly the result of an open call for submissions, which is, obviously, appropriate.

You can read the full article here.

I also want to mention to my fellow writers -- especially zine authors and editors -- you can add your names to the Occupy Writers list. While I am a contributing writer at Hyperallergic, I was curious to see if my editing International Girl Gang Underground would be appropriate for this list, and I got an emphatic yes as a response. Occupy Writers is encouraging anyone on the list to write original material about the movement.

WHEN ACADEMIC DREAMS COME TRUE

AltDaily: Riot Grrrl Revisited: Kathleen Hanna Speaks at ODU

She shares a recently received zine with us, from The International Girl Gang Underground and praises them as the next wave of the movement she’s been so dedicated to and recognized for that I’m bummed to later find out she only has one copy. She explains she doesn’t even mind when their criticism of Riot Grrrl (which is, to teens and twentysomethings, actually history instead of memory) turns on her. It’s more important they’re critiquing and learning from and moving forward with the best of the old scene while taking advantage of new technologies to advance the new wave.

Read the full article at AltDaily.

THIS IS A THANK YOU SONG, 2011 EDITION: Reflections on the IGGU Zine Release Party

Safer Space sign by Molly Fair

I wrote this the day after the IGGU zine release party. It's been a long month since the event, and we still have yet to hear much in terms of feedback on the project; please be encouraged to get in touch. In this post I take music and cultural production pretty seriously; if you'd like to see me get a little less serious and a little more music-y, then find me on tumblr, where I post kind of often.

So. Last night was the International Girl Gang Underground zine release party at Death by Audio.

Unfortunately, co-editor Stacy Konkiel could not make it into town (from across the country), so I curated this show and ran it on my own, so to speak, but I use those words loosely.

I was only able to book and run this successful, comfortable, well-attended, super-fun event, because of the community members and allies who participated.  It is difficult to create feminist work in a genuine way, especially in a punk context: an aesthetic, social, and musical practice that often walks the line between parody and political concern.  I read comments where an activist questioned the "safer space" policy of the evening [1], asking how we would avoid a fascist policing of our event space. Then, I read along as another person responded quite eloquently, that, "What this policy means practically, is that the organizers have the backs of survivors."  It felt good not to have to respond, arguably for the first time in my life, because someone else had done it for me.  Later, I would see more comments that mocked my choice to promote a safer space in a serious way, but, I digress.


Jamie Varriale Velez. Video courtesy of Stephanie Andares.


American Sun

I could not have dreamed as a teenager that I would be making music, or zines, or art for my friends, that I would be where I am today.  More importantly, I could not have dreamed of having resources like Support New York or NYC Coalition for Safer Spaces that I (and others) could employ to make my own events more comfortable for everyone -- namely, survivors of sexual assault, but also, to create a space that is freer of the drudgery of everyday life (i.e., axes of oppression in its many forms).  Perhaps some people don't see the need for this kind of space because they don't feel it regularly, but, I do.

HERSTORY REPEATS

photo by You Don't Dream

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Kathleen Hanna recently did a presentation called Herstory Repeats at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.  She used the term "feminist continuum" to discuss where she sees herself in feminist history, which is obviously exciting to me; but perhaps even more exciting, is that she mentioned the International Girl Gang Underground zine.

Thankfully, someone who was at the presentation grabbed a snapshot of Ms. Hanna and some audio of the lecture and their great Q&A section.

…They started this thing called the International Girl Gang Underground. They just put out this fanzine, I just got it last week, and it has sections like 'histories and critiques.' But what they're doing is they're looking through the stuff that we did and they're analyzing it. They're saying what they think sucks about it and what they think is cool. They're trying to take over what we did and make it make sense to them, and that just makes me feel, even when they say I'm a jerk, it makes me feel totally loved and respected to not just have people collect the CDs or stickers or something like that, but to actually participate in the work, and take it into the future and make it into something much better than it was.

I am endlessly grateful.

>> photo and audio from You Don't Dream on tumblr <<

4/5/2011: A video of the talk has surfaced, courtesy of TheLOUniverse on YouTube.

ANNOUNCING: INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND ZINE

MARCH 9, 2011

BROOKLYN, NY AND SAN FRANCISCO, CA

In light of yesterday's 100th International Women's Day, Kate Wadkins (of For the Birds Collective, Brain Waves) and Stacy Konkiel (of Soul Ponies) announce the International Girl Gang Underground (IGGU) zine, which is now available in print and online. In an effort to highlight contemporary D.I.Y. feminist cultural production, twenty years after the riot grrrl movement, and in the wake of its legacy, the editors collected stories, artwork, and critical work on the subject.

The print zine features contributions from Osa Atoe (Shotgun Seamstress), Hadass Ben-Ari (Fallopian Falafel – אשת חיל), Carla Duarte (Histérica), Billy Cheer (This is Fag City), Katie Crutchfield (P.S. Eliot, Bad Banana), Lo (HEARTSREVOLUTION), Mimi Thi Nguyen (Evolution of a Race Riot, Punk Planet), and thirteen other writers, activists, musicians, and artists from ten US states and five countries; with original cover art by Philadelphia-based artist Sonrisa Rodriguez-Harrison.

Online, International Girl Gang Underground has published exclusive articles not available in the print zine. In the interest of relevance, information-sharing, and community-building, IGGU online has created a directory of feminist cultural projects; all are welcome to submit new or recent additions to the directory. Further, the editors encourage submissions of music reviews and content related to the zine to be released on the IGGU website periodically. We hope to continue these conversations online.

In Brooklyn, New York, the zine will be released on Saturday, March 12^th, 2011 at Death by Audio:

INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND ZINE RELEASE PARTY
GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME #004

$6 | 8PM | ALL AGES

featuring:

SLINGSHOT DAKOTA

BAD BANANA

AYE NAKO

AMERICAN SUN

+ readings from contributors of the International Girl Gang Underground zine & tabling by FOR THE BIRDS and SUPPORT NEW YORK. This event will be a safer space, with support from NYC Coalition for Safer Spaces. There will also be a bake sale to benefit research for Polycystic Kidney Disease.

@ Death by Audio
49 S. 2nd Street, b/w Kent & Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211
L to Bedford | JMZ to Marcy | G to Broadway

RSVP on Facebook.

The print zine is now available for purchase through the IGGU website. For further information, see GIRLGANGUNDERGROUND.ORG or contact the editors at GIRLGANGUNDERGROUND@GMAIL.COM.

With love and solidarity,

Kate Wadkins & Stacy Konkiel

GIRL GANG ZINE IN PROGRESS

Tonight I finally finished mocking up the International Girl Gang Underground zine flats! Of course, not without a couple snags.

A major victory, after spending days at Kinko's.

INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND ZINE RELEASE PARTY

I've curated a zine release party for The International Girl Gang Underground at Death by Audio on March 12th! This is GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME #004.

RSVP to the show on Facebook.

// The International Girl Gang Underground Zine Release Party has a safer space policy intended to make this event a supportive, nonthreatening environment for everyone including survivors of abuse and sexual assault. Harassment, abuse, and assault, as well as racist, sexist, queerphobic, classist, ageist, or otherwise oppressive remarks or behavior will not be tolerated.

People who have perpetrated inter-personal violence, assault and/or harassment and are not presently undergoing any accountability-related process are asked not to attend. There will be mediators at the show to assist if any violations do arise, so if you would like to speak to a safer space team member please find someone with a pink armband, or ask someone at the Support New York table to help you. //

- International Girl Gang Underground editors & NYC Coalition for Safer Spaces

Are you an artist? Do you love International Girl Gang Underground?

Reblogged from International Girl Gang Underground HQ:

WE WANT YOU TO DESIGN OUR COVER!

The International Girl Gang Underground zine needs a cool, one-of-a-kind cover that will represent the breadth of subjects, styles, and stories of the Girl Gang Underground. The zine will be 1/2 of an 8.5” x 11” page, copied in black & white. Your art should be suited for black & white copies - so a good amount of contrast is necessary.

Please submit your sketch or proposal (along with a link to a portfolio/images of your other work, if you have one) by Wednesday, September 29th. The final product is due Wednesday, October 27th.

E-mail submissions are preferred (PDFs or JPEGs) at girlgangunderground@gmail.com
See website for mail-in submissions, must be postmarked by 9/29.

In Solidarity,
Kate & Stacy

P.S. PASS IT ON!

ANNOUNCING: GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME

My sister and I co-booked this show. As a tangible extension of the International Girl Gang Underground zine, we have chosen the moniker GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME to keep track of shows we've booked and to maintain contact with other feminists who want to/book punk shows or need their own show on tour in the future. You may recall that this has been on my mind for over a year. This being Jess's first show-booking experience, we thought it would be appropriate to start now! Stacy, co-editor of International Girl Gang Underground is on board too, but we need some time to, y'know, PUT OUT THE ZINE and then figure out the future of both IGGU and GGGV.

GIRL GANG ZINE INTERVIEW WITH CARLA DUARTE

Brazilian punk feminist zinester, blogger, and all-around do-gooder Carla Duarte recently interviewed me about what's up with the International Girl Gang Underground zine. You can find the interview in English and Portuguese here.

INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND WANTS YOU

We are swiftly approaching two weeks until the International Girl Gang Underground zine submissions are due, that is, MONDAY, MAY 31 at 11:59PM PST. I recently wrote a post on RE/VISIONIST about that here.

We are also looking for a FEW GOOD REVIEWERS to review feminist bands. This is a good way to get involved if you're not feeling up to writing a full-blown article or submitting something else. It would be really great to get a bunch of different voices on this. Even if you've never written a review, now is your chance! The reviews are due a month after the initial submission deadline, so you've got 'til June 30th. As always, contact us at girlgangunderground@gmail.com with any inquiries.

AUDIO: Feminist Magazine radio show, 4/14/2010

I posted the audio from the show Stacy and I were on last night at our International Girl Gang Underground tumblr.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Recording of the entire show: here

also available at the KPFK archives: here

& a post with just the segment on IGGU: here

Ed. note: you can now stream the entire show at the Feminist Magazine Radio website.

TONIGHT: IGGU on Feminist Magazine Radio

Tonight Stacy and I will be on Feminist Magazine Radio (Los Angeles) answering questions about the International Girl Gang Underground zine and riot grrrl, too.

Tune in live here at 7:30PM PST / 10:30PM EST (click on the right corner where it says 'LISTEN LIVE - NOW').

MESSAGE FROM KATHLEEN

http://kathleenhanna.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/601/

Ed. note: & from Thee Bikini Kill

INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND ZINE

INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND ZINE LAUNCHES

Crossposted with katewadkins.com

Myself and Stacy Konkiel of Soul Ponies have launched a call for submissions for INTERNATIONAL GIRL GANG UNDERGROUND (which may sound familiar to you) – a compilation zine to pick up where riot grrrl left off. I can’t really express how excited I am about it, and to be working with Stacy.

We launched in concurrence with the Sarah Lawrence College 12^th Annual Women’s History Conference, The Message is in the Music: Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music & More. I’ll post more about the conference at a later date. News about the zine is already traversing the airwaves, the BUST Magazine blog even picked it up.

I have one thing to ask of you: PLEASE, SUBMIT!