Rebel Girl

My Life as a Feminist Punk

De: Kathleen Hanna

Narrado por: Kathleen Hanna

An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want

Kathleen Hanna’s band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl” and “Double Dare Ya” are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul­tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band” in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its exclusivity.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful—and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.

Instant Classic

Excellent all around. Kathleen is real and raw, yet thoughtful and empathetic, giving the reader insight into her life and the riot grrrl scene, yet critiquing both herself and the scene with the kind of maturity and insight that comes with experience and age. Easily joins Carrie Brownstein’s Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Kim Gordon’s Girl in a Band, Alice Bag’s Violence Girl, and Viv Albertine’s Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys among my favorite feminist punk/grunge/alternative/indie memoirs.

I want to be heard…

So much of this story felt familiar to my heart. I loved listening to it in Kathleen’s voice and hearing all the tales in her words. I’ve never felt anything more than “No ones listened to me my whole life, and I want to be heard”… 🙏🏻🌹💞👯‍♀️

So good

Outstanding. Wish there were more. Not sure why I need to say “15 words” to express this but there ya go.

Wonderful woman, artist, and human being. This book was so touching. 100%

So much love and honesty. Its great to have a human in this world so talented and passionate. Her non man hating feminism is truly radical.
Im such a big fan of her music and her story is so inspiring, courageous, and brave.

From one PDX Riot Grrrl to Another

Reading this now…as the Cheeto is slated to take office *again,* was what I needed to pull me out of my pity party for one.

Kathleen reminds us of what we already did. What we already faced. And that being yt, I’m not facing half as much. Clearly it never ends. There are no laurels to sit on.

Being from the PNW & a few years behind her, I remember so much… but also I only knew it from my bubble. It really hits the gut reading about inside her bubble of the time, and also her pain & process. As we are all over 50 now, how our healing & work to do still show up… Kathleen can still make it feel like she’s connecting to your life even though she’s talking about her own.

That has always been the magic in her art.