International Girl Gang Underground

Hello Amber!: New Titles Added To The Fight Boredom Distro Catalogue

Amber of Fight Boredom distro reviews International Girl Gang Underground, as a new addition to Fight Boredom!

International Girl Gang Underground girlgangundergroundATgmail.com
This is one mighty zine, clocking in at over eighty half-size pages. The idea came about last year when the internet was all abuzz over this supposed riot grrrl revival and it showcases not only people’s histories with and love letters to riot grrrl, but also critiques and warnings about repeated history. It’s divided into three sections: Beginnings, wherein fans and self-proclaimed riot grrrls write about their discovery of the genre and how it affected their lives; this includes zinesters Hadass of Fallopian Falafel, Osa of Shotgun Seamstress, blogger Jamie of Rock & The Single Girl and more. Part two, titled Histories & Critiques begins with Mimi Thi Nguyen’s essay Aesthetics, Access, Intimacy or Race, Riot Grrrl, Bad Feelingsoriginally printed a decade ago in Punk Planet, which leads not only into more analyses of the classism and racism that permeated the original riot grrrl movement, but also a critique of M.I.A.’s Born Free. The largest section is Generations & Reverberations, where contributors write about what they’re doing to RESIST PSYCHIC DEATH NOW, whether or not it has a riot grrrl label on it. Included are essays, stories, comics, reviews and an interview with artist Maren, whose work I’ve admired for quite a while now. I can’t say that I agree with every word in this zine, and that’s the beauty of it: so many different views are highlighted that it absolutely serves as food for thought… as well as a call for revolution.