Working with/in: an exploration of queer punk time and space in collaborative archival workshops

Fife, Kirsty ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8730-612X (2024) Working with/in: an exploration of queer punk time and space in collaborative archival workshops. In: Punk, Ageing and Time. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 201-223. ISBN 9783031478222 (hardcover); 9783031478239 (ebook); 9783031478253 (softcover)

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Abstract

Punk is history. The last decades have highlighted a growing interest in the histories of subcultures, demonstrated through the publication of punk memoirs (e.g. Albertine, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. Faber & Faber, 2015; Gordon, Girl in a Band. Faber & Faber, 2015; Brownstein, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir. Riverhead Books, 2015; Grace et al., 2016), exhibitions of alternative music heritage (Home of Metal and Black Sabbath: 50 Years at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Punk: 1976–1978 at British Library; and Punk at Museum of London) and the deposit of archival materials such as the Riot Grrrl Collection at Fales Library (Keenan & Darms, Archivaria, 76, 55–74, 2013). However, these same projects have been criticised within specific punk communities. Punk exhibitions have been criticised as overly nostalgic (Press Association, Punk Funeral: Joe Corré Burns £5 m of Memorabilia on Thames, 2016) and for erasing the contributions of women and people of colour (Bulut, Viv Albertine Defaces Punk Exhibition for Ignoring Women. Dazed Digital, 2016). The writing of histories of music subcultures has similarly been criticised for centring whiteness, affluence, commercial success and masculinities (Strong, The Journal of Popular Culture, 44(2), 398–416, 2011; Nguyen, Radical History Review, 2015(122), 11–24, 2015; Wiedlack, Queer-Feminist Punk: An Anti-Social History. Zaglossus, 2015; Stewart, Punk & Post Punk, 8(2), 209–226, 2019), in turn erasing, minimising and pushing out the contributions of individuals from marginalised backgrounds (Lohman & Raghunath, Punk & Post Punk, 8(2), 189–192, 2019). This chapter asks if these issues are inherent to the processes of archiving and history writing or whether different approaches/working methods can enable the production of more collaborative, dialogic and representative histories of punk movements.