ADMISSION:
Admission is free and open to everyone.
Reception to follow.

RSVP

LIVESTREAM
The livestream will begin at 7 p.m.

DESCRIPTION:
Some of punk’s most influential movements and identities—Riot Grrrl, Afropunk, queercore, Latino hardcore, and straight edge—emerged as a challenge to sexism, racism, homophobia, and excess in punk culture. Rooted in resistance and community-building, these movements created space for marginalized voices within punk and beyond. Bringing together legendary artists whose work was central to these movements, this conversation will explore their origins, development, impact, and legacy as well as how their messages have been commercialized, co-opted, and transformed over time.

The panel will feature:
-Kathleen Hanna, punk singer, writer, and frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre
-Bruce LaBruce, filmmaker, writer, photographer, and queercore icon
-Martin Sorrondeguy, musician, teacher, filmmaker, photographer, and singer for Los Crudos and Limp Wrist
-James Spooner, graphic novelist, filmmaker, tattoo artist, and co-founder of the Afro Punk Festival
-Moderated by Candace Hansen, drummer, educator, writer, and artist

The event will be preceded by a DJ set with Allison Wolfe, journalist, musician, lead singer of Bratmobile, and Riot Grrrl co-founder.

A reception will follow with a DJ set by Eloise Wong from The Linda Lindas and Martin Wong, writer/editor, event organizer, and co-creator of Giant Robot zine.

Bios:
Kathleen Hanna is a punk singer, writer, artist, and the frontwoman of the influential bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Her memoir, Rebel Girl, published by Ecco/HarperCollins, was an instant New York Times bestseller. Hanna is a staple in feminist publications, from college curriculums to bestselling books, and a leading voice in the punk feminist movement. She has been named one of the best live performers of our time, earning acclaim from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR, Interview Magazine, V Magazine, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, BUST Magazine, NYLON and Los Angeles Times, to name a few.

Candace Hansen is a drummer, educator, writer, artist, and event producer currently teaching in the UCLA Department of Gender Studies, writing for LA Times and Spin, and drumming for the Alice Bag Band, dimber, the Josie Wreck Noise Ensemble, and performing with experimental performance artists at Evoke III. Hansen is interested in the relationship between rhythm and the body and completed their PhD at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music in Musicology with a dissertation titled “We’re In This Together Now, Huh” Deviant Drummers, Dancefloors, and Surviving in Queer Punk Time, which they are turning into a forthcoming book. Along with Skirt Cocaine, Hansen co-curates Distortion: A Queer Punk Live Band Drag King Revue at Zebulon. They are working on an oral history project about the queer feminist punk festival Grrl Fair and compiling a collection of their journalism and music for the Candace Hansen Papers Collection to be housed at CSUF Special Collections Archive.

Bruce LaBruce is an internationally acclaimed Toronto-based filmmaker, photographer, writer, and artist. In the 1980s, he and G.B. Jones co-edited the queer punk zine J.D.s, which is credited with helping to create the queercore movement. He has directed fifteen feature films, including the award-winning Gerontophilia and Pierrot Lunaire. His films and photography have sparked global attention, controversy, and critical acclaim, with film retrospectives at TIFF/Bell Lightbox and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. LaBruce is also a published author, columnist, and music video director, and he has directed theatrical works in Berlin, Zurich, and Johannesburg. In 2025, LaBruce was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for his significant contributions to the arts in Canada.

Martin Sorrondeguy’s work addresses inequities through the creation of physical and artistic space—first as the singer for the internationally renowned politically charged punk en Español hardcore band Los Crudos. Sorrondeguy has been the singer for the beloved radically and openly queer punk band, Limp Wrist. Rolling Stone Magazine published an article titled “Music’s Unsung LGBTQ Heroes” where Limp Wrist was noted as one of 25 artists throughout music history that created visibility for the LGBTQ community. In the late ’90s, Sorrondeguy produced, shot, and edited Mas Alla De Los Gritos/Beyond the Screams (1999), a documentary that explored the historical roots of Latinos and Chicanos in American punk. This film is a contestation to unrelenting anti-immigrant and anti-Latino movements in the U.S.—movements that have been fully resurrected and mobilized in our current climate. Sorrondeguy has published three photography books: En Busca de Algo Mas (Ugly, Bueno Aires, 2015), Get Shot: A Visual Diary 1985–2012 (Make-A-Mess, Los Angeles, 2012), and Porqueria (Base, Tokyo, 2010).

James Spooner is an award-winning graphic novelist, filmmaker, and tattoo artist. His debut graphic novel The High Desert, the anthology Black Punk Now, and his forthcoming hybrid memoir It Starts with Anger (Pantheon, August 4) continue to center the Black punk experience first documented in his seminal film Afro-Punk (2003). He co-founded the Afro Punk Festival, which now draws worldwide audiences in the hundreds of thousands, and is currently launching a Kickstarter campaign to restore and preserve Afro-Punk. Always true to his DIY roots, James continues to screen Afro-Punk internationally and gives talks on punk, comics, authorship, and Black identity.

Allison Wolfe was born an identical twin in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in an all-female household by a lesbian feminist mother who started the first women’s health clinic in Olympia, Washington. Wolfe co-founded a punk fanzine Girl Germs, an all-girl band Bratmobile, and third-wave feminist punk movement riot grrrl. She also sang in the bands Cold Cold Hearts, Deep Lust, Partyline, Cool Moms, Sex Stains, Ex Stains, and Cliquey Bitches. In 1999, Wolfe initiated the non-profit music festival Ladyfest, which spread across the U.S., UK, and beyond. Wolfe lives in Los Angeles, where she received an Annenberg Fellowship and a master’s degree in specialized journalism in the arts from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She teaches music journalism at UCLA, produces the podcast I’m in the Band, DJs, and continues to play with Bratmobile.

Eloise Wong plays bass and sings for the L.A.–based punk band The Linda Lindas, which formed in 2018, has played venues from The Smell and Gilman Street to So-Fi Stadium and Coachella, and is working on their third album. Extra activities include playing in other bands, making logos and flyers for friends, and going to high school.

Martin Wong was the co-creator and editor of all 68 issues of Giant Robot zine, which covered Asian, Asian American, and hybrid subcultures from 1994–2010; organizer of the Save Music in Chinatown series of all-ages punk matinee benefit shows from 2013–2022; and part of the Visions and Voices team from 2018–2025. He has been a regular contributor to the non-profit punk zine Razorcake since 2019 and has recently enjoyed speaking gigs at the Los Angeles Public Library, Natural History Museum, Hammer Museum, San Diego Comic-Con, and other choice locations.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Co-sponsored by ONE Archives, the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and the USC Thornton School of Music.

Photo credits:
Photo (James Spooner): Lisa Nola
Photo (Kathleen Hanna): Jason Rothenberg
Photo (Bruce LaBruce): George Nebieridze
Photo (Allison Wolfe): Mike Hipple
Photo (Martin Wong): Wendy Lau
Photo (Eloise Wong): Martin Wong
Photo (Candace Hansen): Esther Godoy