In January, 2023, Jen B. Larson released Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983. The book was a comprehensive overview of the under-sung female artists who lit up punk scenes across America in the genre’s earliest days. Broken down by region, the “West Coast (North)” section of the book compiled some of the Bay Area’s most influential women, including members of Avengers, Frightwig, The Nuns, Romeo Void, Mary Monday and the Bitches and many more.
‘Hit Girls’ Explores Early, Female-Led Bay Area Punk at the San Francisco Library
Avengers frontwoman Penelope Houston at Fisherman's Wharf in 1977. (Ruby Ray/ Getty Images)
This week, in support of Hit Girls, Larson is appearing at the San Francisco Public Library in conversation with Frightwig‘s Deanna Mitchell and Avengers’ Penelope Houston. (They will be moderated by Nicholas Gamso.) Houston is no stranger to the venue; she’s both a longtime library employee and the person responsible for starting a punk rock archive at the San Francisco History Center. (Houston also recently showcased some of her own art on the sixth floor, featuring historic mugshots from San Francisco.)
Together, the women will be sharing anecdotes and discussing what the Bay Area punk community was like in its earliest days, as well as examining its influence on later periods of punk and riot grrrl. A slideshow will highlight other female punk artists of the period, as well as fans and figures from the scene. Larson will also expand on the making of Hit Girls and what she learned in the writing, research and interview process.
As Hit Girls emphasizes repeatedly in its pages, the earliest days of punk, particularly in San Francisco, were some of the most open, experimental and beautifully chaotic times for the genre. The combination of Mitchell and Houston’s firsthand experiences with Larson’s expertise is sure to make this a fascinating look back at what made it all so special.
As musician and actress Ann Magnuson wrote so passionately in the foreword to Hit Girls:
[These artists] were dismembering the old concepts of womanhood — to a primal beat … It was as if all the female Beatles fans screaming in the stands at Shea Stadium fled the bleachers, trampled the cops and rushed the stage, pushing aside the Fab Four, grabbing their instruments and proclaiming ‘I don’t wanna hold your hand, I wanna play your guitar.’ Danger is still in the air.
Jen B. Larson will be in conversation with Deanna Mitchell and Penelope Houston at the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin St.) on Thursday, June 29 at 3:30 p.m. Details here. Houston’s band Avengers will be performing at Mosswood Meltdown (Mosswood Park, Oakland) on Sunday, July 2. Details here.
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