by Kathleen Hanna
Ecco Press
6/14/2024, hardcover
SKU: 9780062825230
An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.
Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want
Kathleen Hanna's band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like "Rebel Girl" and "Double Dare Ya" are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?
In Rebel Girl, Hanna's raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk "girl band" in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.
But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its exclusivity.
In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful--and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.
Reviews:
"A timely refresher on resilience, the power of protest art and the tender humanity that we must not lose... Like a comic book hero, Hanna has seemed to gather superhuman strength with every blow she receives... all while churning out ever more powerful and furious music. Rebel Girl unapologetically reveals the vul-nerability behind that image... [Hanna] reflects on her own failures and culpability, acknowledging them in a way that is refresh-ing and constructive... Hanna intentionally busts open her feminist idol identity, liberating her-self from our perceptions and serving some hard-won wisdom." -- BookPage (starred review)
"[Hanna] has always been brutally honest. But in her new memoir, Rebel Girl...[she] gets even grittier, deeper, and more heartbreaking...There's stunning new wisdom to be gleaned from the memoir...Reading it, one gets the sense she's grappling with each memory as it comes to her, working through why she made the decisions she did, the ways she could have reacted differently, while accepting and owning up to the choices she made." -- Rolling Stone
About the Author:
Kathleen Hanna is a punk singer, writer, artist, and the front-woman 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.