“Fugazi Saved My Life: How Punk Made Me Less of an Asshole” is the latest zine from Microcosm Publishing, exploring the transformative impact of punk music. The issue focuses on a 1993 Fugazi gig, while its predecessor celebrates Yeastie Girlz, a punk band challenging societal norms. Both zines convey punk’s role in personal growth and social awareness.
Season three of the Woodstein Media Podcast starts with poet John Barton discussing his new free verse collection, Compulsory Figures. He explores themes of family, patriarchy, and contemporary queer issues, reflecting on his experiences as a gay man during the AIDS pandemic. The book is published by Caitlin Press.
This episode features a conversation with Jillian Clair about the movement to legalize magic mushrooms and her research into the benefits of Psilocybin, that ingredient some mushrooms have which adds that psychedelic touch to them that many of us have grown to love. The mood-stabilizing gift from nature that governments want to deny access to.
The stage of the Axis Club in Toronto was transformed into the landscape that ended up focusing the global eye on an artistic band of Russian activists. Although Pussy Riot has yet to topple Putin’s regime, the notoriety they achieved in 2012 has made them an activist force to be reckoned with.
Riot Days is a play based on the memoir of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. Although the performance maintained the original Russian language, the story of resistance, repression and revolution has been cleverly presented in a multi-media blitz that even allows those of us who are unfortunate monolinguists to follow along and feel a part of the concert, rally, theatre and political happening. After all, as they say, “anyone can be Pussy Riot.”
On this episode, award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer Joe Solo speaks about spreading his message of social justice, anti-fascism, and socialism in his music and books from Scarborough. Not the Scarborough that will jump into the minds of people raised in southern Ontario, but the one across the Atlantic on England’s North Sea coast.
Solo began his musical journey in 1987 and has seen him leaping around with pop-punk upstarts Lithium Joe or his solo albums hammering out his unique brand of Folk, Punk and Blues. His songs bring to mind great lyrical thinkers like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joe Hill, and Billy Bragg.
Since May, a group of concerned citizens known as the Drag Storytime Guardians have supported Drag Story Time and Pride events throughout Southwestern Ontario. At the heart of the guardians is a 70-year-old biker, Sista Patricia, who has been putting what she has learned, marching for the rights of women and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, into action to protect families and drag queens from far-right fanatics who show up at libraries to protest Drag Story Time.
In this episode, Sista Patricia discusses how she came to be involved with the Guardians, the work they are doing and her thoughts on why the protesters are feeling bold enough to show their hate without regard for how they are perceived in this era.
In a related theme to the main focus of this episode, Woodstein Media also wishes respect and love to the Minneapolis, Minnesota music scene based around the 2SLGBTQIA+ friendly punk music venue Nudieland. Sadly, on August 11, the house venue was the scene of a mass shooting that injured six people and killed one beloved member of the scene, August Golden.
The friendships that pulled the Yeastie Girlz together in the 1980s have stood the test of time. Although Cammie Toloui, Joyce Jimenez, Jane Guskin, and Kate (Rosenberger) Razo now live in four cities, making it tough to pull together gatherings in person, recent events brought them together online regularly.
The Yeastie Girlz have accomplished much in their life experiences over the past 35 years. In this episode, they talk about the group’s legacy – how the songs and ideas have aged, connecting to new fans via social media and old-fashioned postal mail, books, bookshops, bands, and the possibility of new raps.
On episode 13, one of the founding members and lead shouter of the renowned anarcho-punk band CRASS, Steve Ignorant, discusses the protest songs they wrote over 40 years ago, which he continues to perform.
“Sad thing is, those songs are still relevant; you’ve just got to change a few politicians’ names.”
On episode five, artist and poet Roshan James talks about how her creativity has helped her deconstruct societal norms, allowing her to turn everything she was taught on its head and re-examine it to find out what little things might have been true or make sense and could be helpful to carry forward and what things are just the chaff that needs to go into the wind.
On episode four, Jillian Clair, singer for MVLL CRIMES, talks about the release of their 12″ EP “YOU EMBVRRVSS ME” on Cursed Blessings Records, her day job dealing with Freedom of Information requests for the City of London, the need for punks to get involved in municipal politics, zines, the lack of all-ages venues in many music scenes, many bands currently active in Ontario, and much more.
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