In January 2010, Sissy Soul Pony (aka Stacy Konkiel) wrote an article called “Why 2010 will be the Year of the Riot Grrrl Revival if we want it to be.” Sissy’s call for girl bands to network and conglomerate into a new riot grrrl (RG)-inspired movement sparked something in me. Sissy’s point wasn’t that we needed to start something; it was that there was already something happening. I had written an article called “Girl Germs: A Brooklyn Scene Report” for MaximumRocknroll’s queer issue the previous October, documenting what was going on here in the New York scene; which was (and is), lots of queer and/or feminist cultural production (music, events, zines, small businesses, you name it)!

My motivation to write the scene report was that I felt this great need for documentation. Tons of girl/queer bands were forming and breaking up, starting new projects and ending old ones; I didn’t want all of this hard work, this buzz of DIY feminist community, to get lost as the years went on. As a participant in this community, I knew in my wholeheartmindbody that it was influenced by riot grrrl, that many of us had started our own collectives after finding our Selves and our own language through the lyrics of Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and the other girls or queers around us growing up.

So I e-mailed Sissy in a frenzy, agreeing that YES! We exist! So what are we and why does RG remain ghettoized in the 1990s, while punk gets to live on and change? Why is there no framework for discussing what DIY feminisms[1] look like today? Let’s do something about it! Let’s find out what’s going on locally, nationally, and even internationally that, just like our communities, carries the spirit of riot grrrl into present day. And so: the International Girl Gang Underground zine (IGGU). Sissy became my friend Stacy (whom I still have never met) and now this zine is in yr hands.

Simultaneously, the internet had become abuzz with riot grrrl nostalgia. Kathleen Hanna donated her filing cabinet to NYU’s new Riot Grrrl Collection at the Fales Library, and Sarah Lawrence announced its 12^th annual Women’s History Conference: The Message is in the Music: Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music, & More.

I happened to enter the graduate program in Women’s History at Sarah Lawrence College in September of 2009 as well. The program reminded (and continues to remind) me about where activism and history, academia and practice meet. Black feminism, postcolonial feminism, and queer theory really affected my thoughts about the ways that we write history, which this zine would inevitably do. I didn’t want to settle for the same old RG story that gets repeated more often than not, recounting just the tales of the original riot grrrls. RG’s written history has often, unfortunately, taken on a prevalent theme that occurs in other feminist histories: one of writing women of color out. After seeing punk sometimes-expatriate and scholar Mimi Nguyen speak at Sarah Lawrence, my commitment to finding out what a transnational, multiethnic, and sexually diverse punk feminist movement might look like now, was solidified.

I wanted to talk about what was (is) going on currently, which was (is) a nebulous body of bands, projects, and critical work by a genuinely diverse group of people. Treating the term “riot grrrl,” as I often would “feminism,”[2] I (we) committed to encouraging critiques of the movement and allowing for difficult dialogues to occur within the zine’s pages (or potentially, on our accompanying website).

In many ways Stacy was right, 2010 was the year of the riot grrrl revival. Everything around me screamed RG: a panel at Sarah Lawrence on the subject, Sara Marcus’ Girls to the Front book, lauded as the first complete RG history. There were even great historical moments I saw with my own eyes: screenings of the forthcoming Le Tigre film, Kathleen Hanna joining the Raincoats on stage at MoMA to perform a Slits cover in honor of Ari Up, and of course, the world premiere of the Julie Ruin at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.

While riot grrrl of the 1990s got validation through tribute shows, recognition in libraries and books, and a general interest in, and nostalgia for, American ’90s culture, the world of DIY punk feminism continued making and doing. Often, the present and the past blended together in events like the 2^nd Anti-Valentine’s Day Riot Grrrl cover band show, or Rah! Rah! Replica (a Kathleen Hanna covers show), with tributes to the originals by women and queers in punk now.[3]

We could never have imagined how this zine would turn out. The range of stories and ideas, places and ages, opinions and actions, are overwhelming; and this is just the beginning. This zine is a finite object, but punk and feminism operate in continuums, constantly changing, moving, evolving. In order to better achieve our goal of documentation, we have established a website at GIRLGANGUNDERGROUND.ORG where our IGGU directory can be found, among exclusive articles that didn’t make it to the print zine. We have also established GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME, a nebulous group of show-bookers, to continue creating feminist music spaces all over the country, as well as to promote networking among folks who are interested in creating these spaces.

We hope that the zine is as exciting to you as it is to us, and that you continue to do and make the cool things that keep us going. Please get in touch with us.

- KATE WADKINS

- – - – - – - – - -

When I originally wrote the now-infamous Soul Ponies post, “Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Riot Grrrl Revival (If We Want it to Be),” I knew there would be a range of reactions to its content (which was essentially a call-to-arms for women who were too young to run with the original riot grrrl movement but were old enough for RG to have had a meaningful impact upon them; why bemoan that RG doesn’t exist when we have vibrant feminist DIY music scenes happening around the world right now?). Some would be excited, embrace the idea, and would get to work on forming bands, writing zines, and founding feminist collectives in their cities (or would want to talk about their existing projects that fit into the feminist DIY framework that riot grrrl advocated); others would be hesitant to “revive” anything and would question why the work they were already doing wasn’t being celebrated separate from the long-criticized RG movement. Still others would give me the (virtual) finger and tell me to fuck off.

Did my post herald in a riot grrrl revival in 2010? No. But a “revival” of sorts happened anyway, and people were totally stoked on it.

Not long after I wrote my post, KW got in contact. She had written the article, “Girl Germs: A Brooklyn Scene Report,” in the Queer Issue of MaximumRocknroll (#317, October 2009). Though the idea to start the Soul Ponies blog (“a home for lost and wayward queercore and riot grrrl music”) was kicking around in my head for months prior, it wasn’t until I picked up that MRR and read Kate’s report that I was inspired to get Soul Ponies off the ground. Now, here she was emailing me, saying my post inspired her, that she too wanted to do something to get folks talking about DIY feminist bands and collectives that already exist and that pick up where riot grrrl left off. My mind was blown. After some discussion, the idea to create the International Girl Gang Underground zine was born.

We scrambled to put out a call for submissions and over the next few months, we received amazing art, music, and writing from a pretty diverse group of folks. What was apparent from each submission was how similar everyone’s experiences were at their very core, no matter how different our lives were in lots of other ways. Each one of us was equally touched by feminism and DIY music scenes, and those things had a profound impact on our later lives, shaping our careers, our relationships, and our sense of self.

I’m pretty proud of how the print version of the International Girl Gang Underground zine has turned out, and I’m excited to carry on the spirit of the zine in its online component and in the Girl Gang Gig Volume. Kate and I hope that we can continue the conversation about DIY feminisms in these forums (and maybe even new ones!).

Let’s continue documenting all the rad things that ladies and queers are doing, so that we can all can learn and collaborate and jam and sweat and cry and grow together. I want you to push me to develop and call me on my shit and share in my joy, and I want to do the same for you, ladyfriend.

- STACY KONKIEL

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS

We entered International Girl Gang Underground as editors with the goal to let a wide array of people speak for themselves. That said, we have included this range of opinions, most of which we cannot speak to, as they do not reflect our personal experiences. We are excited to be able to present this to you, but ask that you respect each piece as the experience of the author.

Please be sure to visit GIRLGANGUNDERGROUND.ORG to engage in dialogues about the work presented here and more.

---

[1] I use the term DIY feminisms to mean feminist grassroots organizing and cultural production that utilizes a “do-it-yourself” ethos and reveres punk’s traditionally barter-based or affordable economic structure. While DIY feminisms relate to punk culture, they can also be useful for other modes of organizing. We use the term feminisms in the plural, to emphasize and acknowledge a breadth of modes and opinions within this context.

[2] That is, as a loose term that one can accept or reject to mean fighting oppressions that includes those which are gender-based.

[3] Both of these events took place in Brooklyn, NY, USA.