Kathleen Hanna remembers her path to becoming the OG 'Rebel Girl'

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

Before she founded the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s, Kathleen Hanna was a teenager volunteering at a rape and domestic violence shelter in Olympia, Washington. In today's episode, the Bikini Kill and Le Tigre frontwoman tells NPR's Kelly McEvers how the anger and grief she absorbed there manifested into lyrics and performances that would take the punk and music scenes by storm. That story is at the heart of Hanna's memoir, Rebel Girl, which also grapples with setting boundaries, carrying the feminist torch of a generation and lending a hand to younger bands.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I first got introduced to be Keenik Hill on the message board I used to frequent as a teenager. I was just getting into punk music. That wasn't stuff on MTV. And I was asking people who were older, cooler, and wiser than me for recommendations. And listen, at the time, did I understand the ins and outs of the feminist politics of the
0:23.5	riot girl movement?
0:24.9	No, of course not.
0:25.9	I just thought Kathleen Hannah's delivery on Alien She was sick, and that she was clearly the
0:31.2	main trunk supporting a long and winding branch of music.
0:35.0	She's got a memoir out now called Rebel Girl. And in this interview with
0:38.2	NPR's Kelly McEvers, she talks about some of the really awful stuff she's had to deal with
0:43.2	on tour and how she's still, to this day, finding new ways to support new bands. That's after the break.
0:50.3	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:55.1	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:59.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:01.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:05.4	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:09.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:15.0	Kathleen Hannah, the frontwoman of the feminist punk band Bikini Kill and electronic band La Tigra,
1:22.2	does not want you to think about all the terrible things that men did to her over the years.
1:27.6	Those terrible things are not the reason she became a feminist icon and founder of the
1:32.7	riot girl movement that started in Olympia, Washington in the early 90s.
1:37.7	Instead, she wants you to know her whole story, a story about making art, music, and community.
1:44.2	She tells this story in her new memoir, Rebel Girl.
1:47.6	Here she is, reading the first two paragraphs of the book.
1:50.7	Hair is growing out of my mouth.
	...

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