Punk and Alternative Cultures (PAMLA)
San Francisco, CA
Organization: Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Assoc.
Event: PAMLA
During the 1970s-1980s golden age and beyond, the San Francisco Bay Area was home to one of the most active and diverse punk scenes in the United States. The scene built upon a long history of radical politics and experiments in alternative living that characterized the Bay Area during the 20th century. This special session seeks proposals on punk culture and/or related topics and issues from any period. Proposals on other subcultures and alternative cultures, and those that address aspects of this year’s conference theme, “Palimpsests: Memory and Oblivion,” are also welcome.
Proposals may address Bay Area punk culture and/or punk music and culture generally, including:
· Bands: Avengers, Beatnigs, Crime, Crimpshrine, Dead Kenndys, Fang, Flipper, Frightwig, MDC, Negativland, Neurosis, the Nuns, Special Forces, Spitboy, Victim’s Family, etc.
· Venues: The Farm, Gilman Street, Komotion, La Peña, Mabuhay Gardens, Phoenix Theater, Ruthie’s, Tool and Die, etc.
· Labels and Distros: 415, Alternative Tentacles, Boner, Lookout, Mordam, MRR, R-Radical, Subterranean, etc.
· Zines: Cometbus, Creep, Homocore, Lookout, MRR, Search and Destroy, etc.
· Political/Theoretical/Ideological contexts: Anarchism, Anticonsumerism, Avant-Gardism, Communism, Dadaism, DIY, Environmentalism, Existentialism, Nihilism, Situationism, Surrealism, etc.
· Punk Film and Documentaries
· Punk Style, Subcultures and Subgenres
Proposals may also explore related/adjacent subcultures and movements in the Bay Area and beyond, such as
· The Beats: City Lights, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, Merry Pranksters, etc.
· New Left: Antiauthoritarianism, Free Speech Movement, Marcuse, SDS, Weather Underground, etc.
· Counterculture: Bohemianism, Cockettes, Hippies, SF Mime Troupe, Survival Research, Yippees, etc.
· Liberationism: American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, Gay Liberation, Radical Feminism, Third World Liberation Front, etc.
John Goshert