No Punk Left Behind

[11 February 2008]

By Rebecca Skulnick Cohen

Editor’s Note: PopMatters was not aware of the historical status of this piece at the time of submission; simple copyedits prior to publishing would have set this essay in such a context.  As it is, please read this as an historical essay. PopMatters has not changed statistical information provided by the author.

Dorey Fox, a student at Indiana University, and I meet at the locally owned coffee shop, replete with shade-grown organic beans from farms in South America and Africa. The walls are lined with notices of coming protests, The New York Times lay on a table beside beat up orange chairs across from the huge dictionary I’ve never seen used. It sits open atop a television converted into a fishtank that newer customers seem to enjoy. The chairs are filled with subversive academics and post-punk hipsters, like me and Fox.

We are contemplating subcultural movements in Bloomington, Indiana, a small Midwest college town that is home to Indiana University, which has approximately 50,000 students. The town that supports and is supported by the university has a comparable population of around 45,000 citizens. (The rift between the college students and “townies” was well depicted in the film Breaking Away, which pits a college athlete against a less affluent, more determined townie—an oversimplified story of college vs. city.) We are contemplating subcultural movements in Bloomington when the manager of the coffee shop, an ex-punk townie that tends bar for college hipsters, overhears our conversation and says, “There is no such thing as punk anymore.”

Photo by Libby Bulloff

His comment led to this essay. Is he right? With punk culture co-opted by mass consumer culture, the local punk community has seemed at a loss; it did not want to participate in that consumer culture, yet it was linked by the signifiers of style to contemporary MTV, not ambitious idealists. And it has become hard to distinguish the MTV punks from the other kind.

It’s easy to find consumption-minded and style-driven teenagers who call themselves punk, but less easy to find 20- to 30-year-olds who mean to sustain the ideals of the original punk communities, a group of peaceful protesters speaking out in favor of socialized medicine, community gardens, and do-it-yourself clothes and furniture.

In the punk community now, there seem to be two conflicting groups: the punks who work with the system to promote change, and those who work against the system. But on closer inspection, these two groups seem to coexist in an unresolved tension.

Bloomington is not only known for its top-tier research university but also its indie music label, Secretly Canadian. Chris Swanson, its co-founder, told the Herald Times, a local paper, that he enjoys running the label in Bloomington because “the quality of life is high, cost of living relatively low, there’s no commute and it’s the sort of community within which you can create your own reality.” He adds, “The toughest part about living in Bloomington is that the population is relatively transient. You’ve got to steel yourself to the fact that folks come and go.”

The Impossible Shapes and other Bloominton-based indie bands on the Secretly Canadian label play at the trendy bar, Second Story, where I saw the White Stripes play when they were still with Sympathy for the Record Industry. The Bloomington punk scene is perhaps best epitomized by its members’ attraction to disjointed connections between music, fashion, and activism. For example, in a couple of weeks, the Impossible Shapes will play as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for a “prom” in honor of Boxcar Books, a volunteer-run nonprofit bookstore and meeting space.

While the surrounding areas of Southern Indiana are known for their religiosity and political conservatism, Bloomington is precisely the opposite. Unlike the surrounding environs, Bloomington offered cheap housing where politically active youngsters could live in a communal setting. One space in Bloomington that never wavered in its reverence for punk culture and liberal politics is a school created in the 1960s called the Harmony School.. Devoted to global and community activism, this school supported a generation of Bloomington punks.

In the late ‘80s, just before the punk movement in Bloomington took hold, the first generation of Harmony kids graduated from high school and became a part of the local community as activists and citizens. Also, a housing unit called the Allen Building supported local writers, artists, and musicians. But when college students started to become apolitical, the hippie housing units of the ‘70s became college-student havens, and some of the punks of the ‘80s were forced to move their living quarters as the downtown area was developed into higher-income residences for those attached to the university. The low-income units in the center of town became two-bedroom houses where multiple people lived in order to defray costs.

For punk culture to survive, it seemed that new sociopolitical spaces would have to emerge. But few expected one of them to be the mall. Rooted in popular culture and supported by such stores as Hot Topic, MTV-esque punk culture in Bloomington blossomed in shopping centers, where it is no longer relegated to the margins. This has created a rift, with politicized punks spurning the popular punks who concentrate on their personal lifestyle decisions, e.g., becoming a vegan, to define their punk identities rather than investing in political movements.

But at the same time as punk went mainstream, Bloomington punks were in the midst of shifting their political focus from global activism to local community building. Rather than focus on the national political climate and global issues such as they did during the ‘80s Persian Gulf War, the post-‘80s punk community focused on their immediate economic and health concerns. While they were mobilizing for national and global causes, the ‘80s punks were pushed out of affordable housing, seemed at a loss for health care, and realized that they needed to refocus locally in order to not “turn corporate”.

In 1996 or so, the punks in Bloomington shifted to an issue with international implications but demanding local action: the politics surrounding bike riding. For years, the Bike Project in Bloomington was conducted from the basement of the Harmony School, where local citizens could bring any bike to have it repaired. By encouraging bike riding, the Bloomington punks were supporting a community ideal: that one should say “hello” to the people who walk down the street, maintain an open relationship with the community, and not contribute to pollution. In Bloomington’s punk community, you’re an activist if you ride your bike. The Bike Project lets all sorts of people partake of a classic punk ideology: D.I.Y. On any given Saturday, one might ride their bike to the farmer’s market, pick up a bag of kettle corn, and find oneself amongst a crowd of bike-fixing community members interested in “taking back the streets”.

This is constructive enough, but before the Bike Project was Critical Mass, a global campaign started in spring 1994 by Wayne Nashville. Critical Mass has been described as “a new kind of political space, not about protesting but about celebrating our vision of preferable alternatives, most obviously in this case bicycling over the car culture. Importantly, we wanted to build on the strong roots of humor, disdain for authority, decentralization, and self-direction that characterize our local political cultural history”

Though punk culture was obsolete in the popular media in 1994, it thrived in Bloomington. When the punk apartments still existed in the center of the city, an informal community center there offered info-brochures on how to be politically active. In the hallways of the Allen Building, information booths would be set up outside of apartments. Here, the punks of Bloomington learned about the national Critical Mass project and organized. By making and posting fliers around town, as many as 175 people came and rode their bikes in the streets, disrupting traffic while distributing educational brochures to drivers.

The next fall, the event was disruptive enough to attract police attention.  But by the spring of 2003, only ten people participated in Critical Mass. No police protested the event. No educational brochures were handed out. The people associated with the protest believed that if they had it every year, those who want to participate would just show up.

Now, bike riders are associated with the Bike Project rather than Critical Mass. The Bike Project has concrete local environmental goals, but local post-‘80 punks believe that its vague association with punk ideology makes it seem to accomplish little more than supporting the credibility of the local punk population who shop at Hot Topic. While the Bike Project works with the “system” in order to advocate for social change, Critical Mass worked against the system, disturbing traffic in order to promote their cause. This suggests a trend away from confrontation for punks, which coincides with the mainstreaming of the accoutrements of the lifestyle.

With the loss of Critical Mass, the punk fashion scene had supplanted the ‘80s political punk scene that defined itself based on drive and dedication. The Bike Project is simply sexier than Critical Mass. According to local scenesters, when Critical Mass was more active, punks were more politically active and aware, even if they chose to participate only because it seemed “cool”. Now, in the Bike Project, the image politics are peripheral to the project’s purpose, but the only educational project directly associated with the Bike Project is a workshop for children on bike safety.

But with regards to food, something different is happening in Bloomington. Some punks are not merely helping local folks fix their bikes; they are also engaged in a Robin Hood style activity in which they steal food from chain businesses in Indianapolis and give this food to the food bank, community kitchen, and local businesses. Started in Spring 2004, the Urban Hearts Collective (identified in the internet Anarchist Yellow Pages here) feeds the punk community, using food as a protest against corporate supermarkets and chain restaurants. They also find food in the dumpsters behind businesses that throw away rather than give away unsold goods.

While the Urban Hearts Collective may seem to have a self-serving mission, it actually contributes to a national movement, Food Not Bombs, which dedicates itself to feeding hungry people by subversive means. Its international website explains how the movement . . .

. . . is organizing for an end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. We also support actions against the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people and the destruction of the earth. . . The San Francisco Chapter has been arrested over 1,000 times in an effort to silence its protest against the Mayor’s anti- homeless policies. Amnesty International states it may adopt those Food Not Bombs volunteers that are imprisoned as ‘Prisoners of Conscience’ and will work for their unconditional release.

Ten years ago, before the Urban Hearts Collective began, punks instead established independence from their parents and collected food stamps. The cost of living in Bloomington is very low and many are able to get by on salaries of less than $16,000 a year. Such a salary enables one to also apply for food stamps. In the ‘90s, punksters would apply for food stamps even when they didn’t need them and feed the local community with their stamp allocations.

Others worked at the local food co-op, allowing poor punks to eat organic food cheaply. In order to make the most of their food, they cooked for one another before concerts or shows. The poorer punks did not need to dumpster dive because they knew who had extra food stamps and where they could eat a hot meal. Even though a younger punk scene is heavily engaged in the Urban Hearts Collective, they do not participate in Critical Mass. George W. Bush’s policies have seemingly raised the stakes from refuting car culture; instead, the punks now steal from political corporations and gather together to create their own safe spaces outside governmental programs such as food stamps.
Another aspect of the punk scene that’s changed is the places where punks are able to collect information on the movement they seek to belong to. In the late ‘90s, a small bookstore called Secret Sailor operated as a clubhouse for anarchist punks and a type of community center. As the punk movement grew in popular culture, Secret Sailor closed shop, and within a month the Boxcar Books opened in the same space. Rather than maintain a commitment to anarchist politics, Boxcar Books works for Pages for Prisoners, an organization that gives books to people in prison. A progressive cooperative, the store makes its money by selling books and the people who work there are volunteers. So Boxcar Books seeks to work within the framework of democratic dissent rather than try to create a completely alternative system to capitalism. But significantly, the same person who started the Urban Hearts Collective also was one of the founders of Boxcar Books and works a 40-hour-a-week job.

A Critical Mass event in New York City

A Critical Mass event in New York City

One reading of the shift in punk attitudes is that new punks are not averse to working within the system in order to promote their cause. But faith in a world that youth can define and influence has receded with the policies of the Bush administration, and contemporary punk culture seems laden with anxiety. It seems to have little patience for global change and instead seeks to affect the immediate community, whether through such organizations as the Bike Project or through subversive organizations as the Urban Hearts Collective. Neither aims to truly affect national and global politics with the same fortitude as Critical Mass or Food Not Bombs.

While an authentic-seeming punk may be growing harder to find in Bloomington, it still exists within the promotion of a different sort of community values. It will be interesting to notice the shift in punk culture when Bush leaves office. Even so, with the initiative of the Urban Hearts Collective and the spirit of the ten people who still ride in support of Critical Mass, a confrontational movement for social change still lays dormant, waiting to reinvigorate itself.

A post-1980 punk said it best when he quoted someone who, ironically, was speaking on MTV: “The conservatives have us against a wall, they’ve stolen rock ‘n’ roll from us, so you have to be punk rock in order to get rock ‘n’ roll back.” As punk and the rock ‘n’ roll associated with punk culture went mainstream, the movement lost momentum; in order to reclaim the political fortitude within the culture, hipster punks need to find a way to publicly rally against, rather than steal from, the corporate world, get on their bikes, and become more punk rock. 

Thanks to Dorey Fox and Wayne Nashville for contributing wise commentary to this article.

 
Bookmark and Share
Share

Comments

Does Dorey know you called her a
“post-punk hipster”?

Comment by COZYxo from 47403 — February 12, 2008 @ 9:04 pm

really informed. glad you took the time and interviewed the “local post-80’s punks and the “scensters”. i do believe teaching people to work on their bikes, provide tools, free helmets, locks, and affordable bikes is much more sustainable than parading around causing “confrontation” with the local pigs.

Comment by Rawny from 47404 — February 12, 2008 @ 11:29 pm

how can you say that “punk culture was obsolete in the popular media in 1994”? when green day, rancid, and the offspring all released albums that year that pushed them into the mainstream. nirvana even put out that mtv unplugged album. do you even know what yer talking about. quintessential midwestern college town…some of bloomington’s “peers” don’t even support a planned parenthood let alone a food bank, bike project, or non-profit book store. i think it’s great that yer addressing these issues…(what are they again?) but you might want to dig a little deeper in yer research than by just having a cup of fair-trade coffee and shouting “1-2-3-4 who’s punk, what’s the score!”

Comment by pete colpitts from shreddysburg — February 12, 2008 @ 11:35 pm

Lol. Nice Jawbreaker quote, Pete. I was at that White Stripes show. I was underage so I sneaked in, but it sucked so I went downstairs to Bullwinkle’s and danced with Tom Donahue. I don’t know what the writer’s intentions were with this article, but the B-town punk scene seems fine. The One Reason show this weekend affirmed that in me.

Comment by COZYxo from 47403 — February 13, 2008 @ 12:26 am

How old is this garbage? That Boxcar show, the
one in a couple weeks, was
nearly two years ago?
Maybe Rebecca is right?
Let`s all get mohawks and ramones t-shirts
and misfits tattoos and write cynical
college newspaper articles.
`77 punks rise up!!

There is more. why is Dorey not even quoted once
if she was interviewed for this?

Comment by jrd from Bloomington — February 13, 2008 @ 8:19 am

Very interesting article.  But I don’t like the way that it relies on a false dichotomy: the self-interested, identity-oriented, Hot Topic punks, and the community-minded, liberal, movement-oriented punks.  Part of the reason that it has been difficult to maintain a punk lifestyle is because many journalists still insist on evaluating punks on the basis of authenticity.  It’s clear that this author believes the movement-oriented punks are more authentic.  It’s this type of evaluation (to the ends of exclusion) that jeopardizes a sense of community among punks.  Also, I think that there is a strong tradition in the punk community of being suspicious of “movements,” and not letting your politics be determined by the whims of the herd (whether the herd be “conservative” or “progressive”). It’s about being “out of step with the WORLD.” Ian wasn’t talking about being “out of step with GEORGE BUSH.”  A big part of the punk lifestyle is calling into question the utility of categorization as a prerequisite to interaction.  Seems like categorization is alive and well in Indiana.

Comment by Adam E. from Columbia, SC — February 13, 2008 @ 8:38 am

Current Population of Bloomington: 69,247
2006 Enrollment at Indiana University Bloomington: 38,247
Current number of full-time employees at Secretly Canadian: 28

If you can’t get these basic facts right then how can you be considered a creditable source?

Would have been nice to see some actual pictures of Bloomington rather than generic google images. And if Second Story was such a “trendy” bar why has it been closed for almost two years?

And that brings up another point, all this research is at least two years out of date. But it really doesn’t matter how old this crap is because it still stinks.

As a longtime resident of Bloomington, and the coffeehouse manager that supposedly inspired this article, I find it to be an embarrassment.

Better luck next time, see you again in two years and we can talk about what’s going on today.

Comment by boone — February 13, 2008 @ 9:07 am

I think its funny that this article mentions Urban Hearts Collective when that group hasn’t been active in over four years. And in addition, Food Not Bombs hasn’t been active in the last year and a half. Why not find some of the members of that collective instead of using poor Google searches?

Also, the photographs, as does the article, have no reflection of what “punks” in Bloomington are like. I’ve lived there for a few years, was heavily involved with Food Not Bombs, and found this article nothing more than mainstream speculation of punk rock and activism. This is just sad.

Comment by Junior from Brooklyn, NY — February 13, 2008 @ 9:51 am

Most of the things i wanted to say have already been said in the above posts, regarding current events, the bike project and critical mass. I just wanted to add that Boxcar Books has never presented itself as an anarchist bookstore or meeting place. It’s there for the community at large. It seems more beneficial sometimes to get involved with your local community than to cater to the ideals of a small select group.

  Also, are you involved with any of these local groups? Have you talked to any of them? Are you just airing your coffee shop gossip?

Just because punks aren’t as involved with public events (FNB, Critical mass) as much, don’t assume that they are unproductive. The best underground movements come from out of nowhere; not from trying the same safe methods over and over.

Feel free to get in touch to discuss. If not, i’ll just assume that you can’t back up your opinions with fact.
rick_harvester@yahoo.com

Comment by Greg Harvester from bloomington — February 13, 2008 @ 11:44 am

It seems as if a bunch of people have already beaten me to the punch when it comes to addressing the (in my humble opinion) misguided ideas set forth in this article, but i still have to toss my two cents in. It is the internet after all…

It seems like you are saying that since the actions of the ‘punks’ aren’t as in your face as they were in the Salad Days, these punks are now ineffectual and/or turned ‘Hot Topic.’ I have to totally agree with the post Rawny made a few up; things like the Bike Project accomplish what 100 Critical Masses in this town never did; It gets people on bikes. To rephrase an old cliche, the Bike Project is teaching people to fish, while all Critical Mass did was wave fish in your face, whether you wanted it or not.

And who says punks still aren’t attacking other areas, too? What about the DIY art venues like the Art Hospital and Sweet Hickory? What about the dozens of bands still playing or getting started and the tons of basement shows we have in this town? Boxcar might work inside the capitalist system, but they’re a freakin’ non-profit store!  And Pages to Prisoners GIVES AWAY BOOKS to people in jail, who have no other access to reading material!

All in all, reading this article and mulling over the points in it has made me happier to be a part of what punk rock has turned into in this town: It’s a mature, accomplished force to be reckoned with, but still fun to be a part of.

Comment by richrd from Bloomington — February 13, 2008 @ 9:35 pm

I think most of the teachers, students, and parents associated with the Harmony School will be surprised to find out that suddenly the are part of the “post 80’s punk movement”.

Comment by Sarah from Minturn, CO — February 13, 2008 @ 9:35 pm

so all of us in the “post 80’s punk movement” aren’t agros with mohawks.  if we were, you’d just say we were fashion punks of the hot topic persuasion. why do you think the only effective way to see change is through confrontation?  also, what is wrong with taking local action if those in our community don’t earn a living wage, or have food, clothes and health care. as for your comment that “new punks are not averse to working within the system in order to promote their cause”...how do you expect those of us who try to make change in areas such as health care without legitimate back up from accredited organizations? i’ve lived here for almost a decade and think the bloomington community is way more proactive than you give credit for.  maybe if you actually got around and talked to some people, you’d find your “20- to 30-year-olds who mean to sustain the ideals of the original punk communities, a group of peaceful protesters speaking out in favor of socialized medicine, community gardens, and do-it-yourself clothes and furniture”.  i know plenty of ‘em.

Comment by nicole from bloomington in — February 13, 2008 @ 10:25 pm

thanks,
i feel that we all really needed a misguided history lesson on the city of bloomington, and our “punk scene”.
i really just do not understand the purpose of posting this article on such a highly read forum. there is nothing i can write into this comment which has not already been addressed by many of my peers and fellow bloomingtonian “punk rock post punk hipster hippo readymade folk rocking coffee people”.
you are obviously not in touch with what is actually going down in this town, or the date.
on the upshot of this, i now have something other than my broken rib to complain about at parties.
best-jk

Comment by jeremy kennedy from mcdoel gardens, bloomington, in — February 13, 2008 @ 11:15 pm

the bike project, boxcar books, art hospital, sweet hickory, space 101, the church, secret sailor, deep roots, on a lark, family vineyard, friends & relatives, secretly canadian, jagjaguwar, bluesanct. basement pop, half-day, FMSMPRC, plan-it-x, affirmation, pages to prisoners, third sex collective, daft crunk, punk rock mondays, A&I;productions, midland yoga center, the packinghouse, the sound mill, dirty scarecrow,  fuck what you heard, club kirkwood, guilty pleasures, snack mountain, ducks in a stack, octopus palace, triple deuce, church of sun ra, castle grayskull, spirit of ‘68, your art here, videacy, total trash, BIAS…..

bloomington diy, past and present. this list is by no means comprehensive, and does not even include most of the official business and community organizations that grew from the same diy spirit. our scene is forever growing. the underground is thriving, and all of us “punks” are catalysts. the article’s definition of “punk” is laughably narrow and outdated. we are trying to make a goddamn difference from within our community, and that is making much more impact than any mass of angry loudmouths.  i invite you to return and get the real story someday.

Comment by elaina from bloomington, in — February 14, 2008 @ 10:44 am

to add to the comments already made, i strongly encourage popmatters to correct or retract the content of this article. your editorial reputation deserves better than the continued implicit support of the author’s at best incredibly lazy and at worst willfully misrepresentative reporting.

Comment by daniel from bloomington, in — February 14, 2008 @ 12:27 pm

— PopMatters sponsor —

In all seriousness, what was the point of this article?  There is no focus.  It jumps around to a dozen outdated or incorrect allusions to Bloomington.

I loved my years in Bloomington and have found it to be a constantly evolving, progressive, active community full of warm, inspired people.  Bloomington is truly a place that “acts locally.”

BTW, Why post such an article about Bloomington on a website for pop culture loaded with ads?

Comment by Peter S from Brooklyn, NY — February 14, 2008 @ 12:48 pm

Finally! The brain-washing device I placed in a certain TV-turned-fishtank in a certain cleverly-named coffee shop YEARS ago has suceeded! Upon reading this truly earth-shattering article, people will think of Bloomington as a sanitized, Disney version of social and political unrest (protest with a smile!)—and no one will ever suspect a real threat to the system, thus leaving us free to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!! (evil laughter)

Comment by Brik from Bloomington, IN — February 14, 2008 @ 1:28 pm

It’s bad enough that all of the information is dated and misguided, but it is also poorly written. What a boring piece of trash!

Comment by Crystal S. from Bloomington, IN — February 14, 2008 @ 3:03 pm

for some reason, for the past few days, i’ve been obsessing over this article and the reaction it has stirred… this is about my home after all. my friend made a few good points in an email sent to me, and i thought it too good for just my eyes…

...“Oh, but I also think the “locals” reaction to the article is sort of silly too. Lots of reactionary and somewhat defensive comments trying to prove the worth of a scene which people feel is being dismantled by this article.

People are entitled to feel and respond as such, and the article does seem uniformed and peppered with misrepresentation, but for some reason that doesn’t really bother me…I guess I just don’t feel like the aim of the article was to discredit the current “scene” as much as it was for someone (albeit a misguided someone) to try to explore certain facets of culture, subculture, radicalism, and politics in a zone which is not only difficult to define, but always teeters on some edge, rift, or other cultural blah, blah, blah.

But maybe I’m also taking on too much of a “if you have lemons…make lemonade” approach to viewing this piece. Once I dropped any feelings of “OMFG they fucked up and didn’t accurately represent me and my movement” it actually got me thinking a bit. For that I sort of appreciated its novice attempt at critical analysis despite its reeking of wank.

Weird…being optimistic is not usually one of my strong suits. Then again, I have spent quite a bit of time reading, writing, and reading other student’s writings about crap like this so I should like this kind of crap.

As for challenging the article/writer on factual and analytical grounds I feel that a much more effective approach would have been for the locals to NOT reply as obvious locals defending their turf in a pissing contest, but as critical thinkers willing to consider and challenge any underlying argument(s) which might be lurking. That would have been a better way to make lemonade (IMHO) out of this situation and it might have encouraged some interesting discourse concerning all things “punk” and all things “scene” in net and F2F forums.

Maybe that is just me being a gamer and thinking about choosing the best strategy/tactics for a given situation. Gut reaction can still be effective and powerful.

As it stands only 1 out of 13 comments is not an obvious attempt to reinsert a sense of how Bloomington “really is” into its lines. As it stands, there is a strong us vs. her mentality going on that just doesn’t do it for me…I’m not saying people are stupid or wrong, it just doesn’t bring home the 6-pack for me.

But at the end of the day, yeah, it was a pretty wanky piece of wank-wank and regardless of my thoughts on HOW people responded, I suppose it is sort of cool that people did feel compelled to respond at all.”

Comment by pete colpitts from shreddington — February 14, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

I am sorry that so many people in the Bloomington community found this article misrepresentative.

To clear up some confusion and some of the implicit questions in the “comments,” I did write it three years ago with Dorey and Wayne Nashville. I was the writer and we three did the research. All three of us agreed on each of the drafts until I sent it to the editor. Then the editor made some changes.

The purpose was not to describe Bloomington as it exists or even as it did exist once upon a time but to try to explain how punk culture is really changing the world—even in places like Bloomington. The stats I found on the school and town were taken from the IU Bloomington website and if they are different from that website then fact checkers for this website changed that. I merely put to writing what I was told about the culture from Dorey and Wayne. I first published it using all three of our names as the authors, as we did co-write the piece, but the editor asked me to write on the bottom that they were contributors and have only one byline writer.

Second, I was not a real participant in the scene. Sure I participated in Food Not Bombs, the Bike Project, and supported most punk events but really as an outsider, as I’m sure it’s apparent. I didn’t want to get it wrong. I also didn’t want to write a wank wank piece. The main point was supposed to be that punk communities are striving to define themselves and engage in real social change. Three years ago in Bloomington, there was a lot of unrest about what it means to be “punk” and whether commercial punks can be punks. So the piece was about the current vs. former punks of Bloomington and how good people are trying to work toward change. Most people do not know that Bloomington is a haven for punk culture. I did spend two years working at the Harmony School and my comment that its high school students who I worked with were inspired by the punks who came before them is what the students all told me (this was again four years ago).

I will say that much of the piece was re-worked by the editor and I can send anyone the original if they want it. I’m not saying it’s brilliant by any means but it was different. This piece does generalize a bit more for the purpose of its audience.

Also, I did send the editors pictures of Bloomington, they chose to seek out their own pictures. I just now saw what they chose.

As an urban teacher committed to social justice, I wanted to give people who don’t necessarily publish a forum and space to do so about a topic that they know about and that is really interesting and critical to our current time. I think the Bloomington punk scene is both interesting and critical. It is wrestling with issues of consumerism, identity, social change, and institutional/anti-institutional activism. The piece was trying to show this wrestling. How local non-profit health care organizations like the ones in Bloomington have the right idea in mind and are truly advocates for social change but cannot do what they need to do without industry; and yet Boxcar Books gets criticized for being a part of industry, even though its pages to prisoners work is amazing. I don’t see where there is a critique of either Boxcar Books or the local non-profit engines for change. I just wrote that there is conflict within the community about the mohawk commercial punks vs. the real punks, which is kind of what the comments on this site show. People are upset that the piece didn’t represent the true Bloomington and that the true Bloomington is 1. not about mohawks and the pictures on this website 2. subversive and effective 3. is not Disney-esque or commercialized in any way. I agree but I also find the responses protesting a bit too much. Of course there are people who are pretenders and there is commercialization and some actions do not, in the end, effect change. This doesn’t mean that the scene isn’t real and effective overall.  I wish I were a part of it but I was not in Bloomington for very long and fast tracked it through and probably am too much of a wanker to belong to such a great crowd of people.

So if I misrepresented the town, I really apologize. I think you should write a response article and get it right. I do think that, like the last writer, it would be best to challenge the arguments raised in the piece rather than call in wanky or unrealistic. Write about the punk scene and why it is succeeding and what we can learn from it.  Again, I know that Dorey, Wayne, and I have nothing but respect for Bloomington and its punk scene and wrote the piece with that in mind.  In fact, even though we wrote this together, I’m sure they agree with these comments. I do. But I still believe in the purpose and ultimate message of the piece.

Comment by Rebecca Cohen from Philadelphia — February 15, 2008 @ 1:10 am

Oh, and two more things…

The comment about Dorey being a post punk hipster was kind of a joke since she hates (or hated) the term hipster and thought that whole categorization was ridiculous. I only call her post punk cause she said she didn’t want to define herself as punk but she is influenced by it of course, so I came up with post punk. No labels work for Dorey. She is an individual with a shining spirit.

Secondly, some call the Nirvana and the music peter cited as punk, sure. but the social justice movements weren’t attributed to the punk scene the way there were in the 80s and 2000’s, not in the literature on punk culture or in my recollection as a high schooler and college student in the 80s and 90s in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you know of social movements originated by the punk scene in the 90s, I’d love to hear of them… maybe HIV awareness? Finally, I too believe that teaching people how to work on bikes is as or more effective than disturbing the peace. But in the next comment, it affirms that there is some sort of us vs. them mentality about us who work on bikes and teach people to fish vs. them who “parade” around.

Lastly, your comment about “parading around” with fair trade coffee is not fair as, and I realize that this is repetitive, but I did not do the ground research on this piece, I relied on what the article is calling my contributors but what I’d call my co-authors to do the research and they had been active participants on the scene for 10-20 years and, actually, Wayne still is.

Comment by Rebecca Cohen from Philadelphia — February 15, 2008 @ 1:28 am

OK. One last thing. I just re-read it again and I guess there is an implicit critique of anything that had to go mainstream but I think it explains well that this mainstreaming is really a mission to be involved in a locally driven Democratic system. There’s nothing wrong with the shift to a Boxcar mentality from the previous bookstore, which according to the anarchist community website was a part of the movement. It’s just a shift that should be noted. The last line explains it well, in order to go punk, you act locally. This is of course productive and effective but shift from the 80s to the 2000s is that there is a move toward local movements from the more national movements of the 80s. Punk isn’t dead but the original punksters who refused to be a part of anything mainstream are now working with the mainstream to get things done. That’s it. OK. I’m done defending. I just wanted to explain some things.

Comment by Rebecca Cohen from Philly — February 15, 2008 @ 1:50 am

Wow.  That is the most amazing gutless backpedaling I have ever read.  You skirt responsibility for this piece by claiming dorey and wayne as co-authors, blaming the editor for changing the writing and the pictures, and conceding that you did not do any research.

This article is proof that you should write about what you know.  In the future, if you should decide to write something about a whole community - do the research, actually interview multiple people, and publish it on your own damn site, so you can’t blame the editors.  And don’t wait three years to publish it!

Comment by Peter S from Brooklyn, NY — February 15, 2008 @ 10:00 am

Nice fact checking. I got bored and quit counting the false statements about halfway through the article. And I especially like your response- good job blaming the misrepresentations on your sources. Was Dorey the one who told you the Persian Gulf War was in the 80s?

Comment by Will Claytor from Bloomington, IN — February 15, 2008 @ 12:05 pm

I too have been mildly obsessed with this conversation this week, and I’m very happy that one person offered a critique of the way people have responded to this article.  I’ve thought a few times of defending the writing, but figured that was the job of the author.  Now that she has responded, I feel a bit more free to satisfy the itch that has been bothering me.  So many of the people from Bloomington have been expressing (in very different ways) that the scene the author describes does not accurately represent the scene in Bloomington.  I’ve only been through Bloomington once on a bus many years ago, so I don’t know how “true” the claims of the article are.  But I do know that the most vicious reactions to the author’s characterization of that scene have implicitly suggested that it is an INAUTHENTIC representation.  In my earlier post I explained my feelings that this anxiety over authenticity is what causes the most problems for punks across the nation. (Second, OF COURSE, to GWB ;)  ).  While the author does engage in the game of “Who are the REAL punks?”, the responses to her claim merely reinstantiate the offense.  It’s important that we all understand that when we are talking about “scenes” , we’re really talking about the stories we tell ourselves about a common experience of a certain place and time.  So, of course, a Bloomington “scene” doesn’t even really exist.  To suggest there is a scene is to suggest that there is a common thread in our experience of it—and that clearly isn’t the case.  This author obviously had a different experience in Bloomington than some of her critics, and as such constructed a different narrative that articulates the experience of that place and time.  But getting fired up about the fact that her experience of that scene doesn’t conform to your own experience seems to me to violate a principle that many punks hold dear: the importance of recognizing different experiences and the value they hold (albeit to various degrees), whether or not they conform to the dominant narrative of how things are (or how they should be).  Instead of ilustrating the falsity of her narrative, perhaps the Bloomington scenesters should spin narratives of their own experience (without simply insisting on their concrete accuracy).  Just a thought.

Comment by Adam E. from Columbia, SC — February 15, 2008 @ 1:11 pm

Thanks for the last writer’s response. I did not blame anything on Dorey and Wayne. I said that I take responsibility for the article. I just also said that they were my source of information. They did the research. They knew the scene. I was their voice and I tried to be responsible but obviously I should have talked to a member from each organization that I spoke about…perhaps ... but the notion that 100 interviews would have given me a clearer picture of the conflict is missing the point. All articles are written from perspective. The actual facts in the article are right as far as I’m concerned right now. The only statement that tried to say that what facts are in error is the one about the Persian Gulf War. It officially started in 1990 and not the 1980s, like you said. However, the conflict and issues surrounding it began in the 1980s. My friend was deployed in the 1980s. I don’t care what the history books say, our troops were there in the 80s and the conflict began before people say it did. Punks should know not to trust blindly a date given on a computer.

And I wasn’t writing about the entire community. I was writing about six particular punk inventions in the community—six “movements.” This wasn’t meant to be an expose on the Bloomington punk scene. It was about a particular contention that exists in the punk scene and that can be seen by an analysis of these movements.  That’s it. Lastly, many of you are simply writing pretty rude comments to someone, a human being, who explained her position, that being me. I teach high schoolers so I’m used to that but seriously, these comments are truly mean. can you perhaps see things through another perspective and see what might have been implied by the author’s writing?

Comment by Rebecca Cohen — February 15, 2008 @ 2:12 pm

The first Persian Gulf War began in 1980 which led to the second which officially began in 1990. If you want to challenge the author, do it on something you’re right about.

Comment by John from NYC — February 16, 2008 @ 6:54 pm

I resisted commentary for so long, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this article since I first saw it.  The reason I am greatly upset by this article is because you not only grossly misrepresent “the scene” in Bloomington, but you are somewhere close to 99% factually incorrect.  Call it dramatic, but you practically slander many groups/projects/businesses that I either have been involved with or am currently involved with. 
Your “100 interviews” could have been summed up by talking to probably 5 people and you could have gotten the correct information you needed, but you didn’t bother.  You were wrong.  You made your bed (poorly) and you should lay in it. 
Although I am tempted, I will not provide commentary on the lack of substance in your article, or how you describe the Bloomington “scene” because those don’t really matter to me.  You can feel however way you want to about the punk scene here and it makes no difference to me.  However, I do believe that you should have stuck to what you know, or what you are willing to learn about, and you did neither.  You obviously don’t know anything about Bloomington, and you also didn’t make the motions to learn about it. 
Below, I will correct your statements (the ones that haven’t been addressed already and that I can address with the confidence of knowing the actual facts)-
-”...locally owned coffee shop, replete with shade-grown organic beans…walls are lined with notices of coming protests…” aka Soma-
I am the manager of said coffee shop, one manager removed from “boone,” who hasn’t been a manager here in over 3 years.  Customers use the dictionary several times daily.  That’s why it’s there.  Regardless, you state several times in your article that we are too concerned about acting locally, working within the system, and not causing a “confrontation.”  How to countless protest flyers play into that?  This is extremely contradictory.   

-“Now, in the Bike Project, the image politics are peripheral to the project’s purpose, but the only educational project directly associated with the Bike Project is a workshop for children on bike safety…  While the Bike Project works with the “system” in order to advocate for social change…”
Wouldn’t you call learning how to fix your bike yourself educational?
And what “system” would the Bike Project be working in?  According to the director of the Bike Project (I researched), it gets NO funding from the government.  However, it does have non-profit status.  Would you call being eligible for more grants and to be able to give tax deductions to those who donate working “with the system?”

-“Even though a younger punk scene is heavily engaged in the Urban Hearts Collective, they do not participate in Critical Mass.”
I have never been involved with Urban Hearts, which is long gone, but I was aware that it maybe had 10 “members” and I believe that they did try to get Critical Mass back in action.

-“In the late ‘90s, a small bookstore called Secret Sailor operated as a clubhouse for anarchist punks and a type of community center. As the punk movement grew in popular culture, Secret Sailor closed shop, and within a month the Boxcar Books opened in the same space.  Rather than maintain a commitment to anarchist politics, Boxcar Books works for Pages for Prisoners, an organization that gives books to people in prison. A progressive cooperative, the store makes its money by selling books and the people who work there are volunteers. So Boxcar Books seeks to work within the framework of democratic dissent rather than try to create a completely alternative system to capitalism. But significantly, the same person who started the Urban Hearts Collective also was one of the founders of Boxcar Books and works a 40-hour-a-week job.”
As the General Coordinator of Boxcar Books, one of the coordinators of The Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, and a former volunteer at Secret Sailor, I can tell you a few things: Secret Sailor closed because it was exactly as you described it- a “clubhouse” and it didn’t sell any books, thus it made no money, thus it was unable to pay the rent.  Boxcar Books opened in February 2002 IN A DIFFERENT LOCATION, several months after Secret Sailor closed.  Unlike Secret Sailor, Boxcar wanted to be able to exist without being exclusive and smelly, which Secret Sailor was.  Because no one that wasn’t a crust punk wanted to come into the Sailor, let alone spend money there, rent money didn’t exist and it closed.  Because Boxcar isn’t a haven for scabies or solely those with butt flaps, people from all walks of life and income levels feel comfortable and therefore we are able to pay our rent.  Do Borders and Barnes & Noble have entire sections titled “Anarchism” and “Labor,” like Boxcar does?  What about “Globalization” or “Prison Issues?”  Do they carry a wide selection of books published by Autonomedia, AK Press, Microcosm Publishing, etc, etc?  The answer is no.  They also don’t carry zines, which are about outside of “the system” as you can get.
Boxcar Books does not “work for Pages to Prisoners.”  What does that even mean?  Pages to Prisoners and Boxcar Books are two separate organizations who operate financially separately, have a mostly different volunteer pool, and have different mission statements.  We do, however, share non-profit status and space and occasionally team up to fundraise.  What is more punk and anarchist, Rebecca, than the support and humanization of those in prison who don’t get support from many other sectors of society?  What is more punk and anarchist than two all-volunteer organizations with NO OWNERS who run collectively?  Granted, both groups could be throwing molotov cocktails and killing whitey, but I have a feeling that would get us both shut down.  We could be so anarchist and outside the system that we wouldn’t exist!  Sounds sweet!
None of the founders of Boxcar Books, or, to my knowledge anyone in our volunteer history, was ever a member or even associated with the Urban Hearts Collective, which was made up of mostly IU students who lived in Collins, the hippie dorm.  That would make the folks involved with Urban Hearts, which hasn’t existed in 3 or more years, an average age of 25.  The founders of Boxcar are all pushing, if not over, 30.  It doesn’t add up.  Yes, some of us have, and currently do work 40 hour a week jobs.  That means we’re so committed to the projects that we’re involved with that we work more than 50 hours per week total.  We make sacrifices to support them.  It’s called dedication.  Should we be ashamed of this? 

Now, some commentary on the commentary-

-Adam E. writes “This author obviously had a different experience in Bloomington than some of her critics, and as such constructed a different narrative that articulates the experience of that place and time.”
I completely agree, Adam, that individuals who live in the same town that exist in the same or similar subcultures may have completely different experiences.  The problem with this statement, though, is that her article wasn’t a narrative.  She presented it as factual.  She states there was “research” involved.  The term research is one that lets us assume there are facts involved, and in this article, there are very, very few.

-In her latest comment, Rebecca writes “I did not blame anything on Dorey and Wayne. I said that I take responsibility for the article. I just also said that they were my source of information. They did the research. They knew the scene.”
What I find amusing about this is that my friend “Wayne” admits to being present when you were talking (or, maybe you call it doing research) to Dorey about this article, and that he did tell you that he and friends spawned Bloomington’s Critical Mass, but that he was not involved otherwise in your conversation with Dorey.  I discussed this article with him at length, and he wasn’t even aware this had became an article, let alone did he proofread it for you.

I don’t know how to end this…  I guess just by saying that I agree with Daniel’s comment above.  I think PopMatters should retract this article.  No matter how much you defend yourself and provide excuses, Rebecca, it’s disgraceful.

Comment by Abbey from Near West Side, Bloomington, IN — February 16, 2008 @ 7:25 pm

Add a comment

Please enter your name and a valid email address. Your email address will not be displayed. It is required only to prevent comment spam.

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?