The writer Kathleen Hanna called “one of the most important and creative”
Before Kathleen Hanna was a musical force in the riot grrrl movement, she was a spoken word performer.
Her pieces often addressed her own experiences with sexism and violence, during which her audiences were often a mix of those who identified with Hanna’s words and those who sought to challenge them. An advocate for feminism from an early age, Hanna wanted to bring light to her stories in the hopes that they would inspire others to one day do the same.
It wasn’t until a conversation with counterculture legend Kathy Acker opened her eyes to new potential avenues of expression that she entertained the idea of a career change. “Acker asked me why writing was important to me, and I said, ‘Because I felt like I’d never been listened to and I had a lot to say,’” she said, with Acker responding, “Then why are you doing spoken word – no one goes to spoken word shows! You should get in a band.”
Hanna would wade through a couple of different bands before Bikini Kill. The first was called Amy Carter, formed with friends and feminist icons Heidi Arbogast and Tammy Rae Carland. The next was a band called Viva Knievel, but their run was fairly short-lived, and eventually Hanna met Tobi Vail, Billy Karren, and Kathi Wilcox to form what would single-handedly supercharge the entire riot grrrl movement.
Although many moments proved the significance of a movement as energetic and charged as riot grrl, its main claim to fame was no doubt ‘Rebel Girl’, a song that embodied its ethos both in name, story, and sound. It was, in essence, everything that Hanna wanted to achieve from day one, from the heart-pumping beats of her spoken word stories to all the music that came after.
As she told Uncut, “The power of ‘Rebel Girl’ is that it’s about being a feminist pirate, being an adventurer,” she said. “It’s not about standing at the back and not participating. It’s about loving and defending your friends and the confusion between friendship and sexuality.”
Of course, a big reason why Hanna achieved the platform that she did was by observing others. She’d followed in the footsteps of many she loved and admired, observing how they brought feminism into spaces where people typically felt it didn’t belong. She immersed herself in some of the greatest feminist writers and scholars, head down with a fire in her heart that wanted to create the same kind of storm as her predecessors.
One such thinker was Bell Hooks, the author best known for her thoughts on feminism and race. Hanna’s thoughts on Hooks were only discovered a handful of years back when zine writer Kimberly J Bright came across them after having fired off some questions that she was sure she’d never answer. But on Hooks, Hanna had only good words to say.
“I think bell hooks is one of the most important and creative scholars around,” she said. “I’ve read almost all her stuff and can’t wait till she puts out some fiction. I could go on and on. I like studying her writing style because it seems really fluid and effortless, even though she is explaining very difficult/complex ideas that are operating on several different levels, usually in a way that both academics and non-academics can understand.”
