Friday, May 14, 2021
An interview with deaf Muslim punk playwirght Sabina England on being punk
This interview deals with more than punk rock, but for the sake of my research I only included the parts on punk rock.
The Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright: Interview with Sabina England
She writes plays, directs and acts in comedy mime skits, moshes in punk pits and reads lips. Sabina England is a 20-something Midwest girl that fits no typecast. I stumbled across Sabina on twitter as the @DeafMuslim when all Taqwacore scenesters would retweet her plays and videos. I was already curious about the Deaf Desi community since meeting a few in DC, but was even more intrigued after checking out her site, her comedy skits and reading the stories and plays on her blog. How could I not be? I sat down (virtually) for a fascinating interview where she talks about acting as Helen Keller in a high school play, to having a Mohawk and wearing hijab, to prejudices against the deaf community by fellow Desis.
...So let’s talk about another community – the punk one. I kinda want to ask what your favorite punk band was growing up but not sure if that’s appropriate…
I loved The Clash, the Sex Pistols, and X Ray Spex. I listened to music with my hearing aids, but I was more attracted to the lyrics, to the visual elements of punk culture and the punk politics and gender issues along with it. I can hear music okay, but I can’t really make out the words. For other punks, they were in it for the music. Not me. For me, going to shows, it’s more about socializing and being with my friends and meeting other people, having a good time and bonding. it’s not really about the music for me at all, you know?
I was always a feminist, and I think being a feminist pushed me into punk rock at an early age. I liked the anger and the “fuck you” attitude of punk rock. I loved the independence and fierce attitude of punk females like punk vocalists in all male bands.
Right…who were you favorite female punks?
I was never a girly girl and I never liked girly girls at all. Poly Styrene from X Ray Spex and Siouxsie and Beki Bondage. I was also in love with strong female characters in films, like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 Judgment Day. I admired females in Hollywood such as Lucille Ball, who is still one of my biggest inspirations.
So did you have a lot of punk friends in England or the Midwest?
I got into punk rock when I lived in the Midwest. But as a child in England in the 80s and early 90s I had seen some punks around in London and other cities, and their style always attracted me. I knew it was something I wanted to be part of it.
And the Mohawk, when did that happen?
I had a Mohawk for 2 years, it wasn’t too long ago, about 3 years ago. It was cool, I’m gonna grow my hair long again so I can shave my sides and have a Mohawk again. It was so weird, though, I always got different reactions and treatments from people. So in a way, having a Mohawk taught me about people. I had hot pink hair once and my father was furious, he wouldn’t speak to me for 3 weeks. I told him to get over it. I can’t stand that patronizing bullshit from parents, especially Desi or Muslims. They are making judgmental remarks about people who dye their hair or get tattoos or wear revealing clothes. What the fuck does it matter to them? It’s their lives and their bodies, it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
I also used to wear hijab, too, you know. For about 3 years in the late 90s to early 2000s.
And then?
Well one day, I had a wake-up call from a goth girl who was sitting next to me. She was the only one in the entire college who was nice to me, while everyone else were extremely nasty toward me. I stared at her hair and her outfit and then I thought to myself, “what the fuck happened to me? I used to be a punk and now I’ve become this?” and then I realized how wearing the hijab is such an artificial thing to do. I don’t want to piss off any hijabis here. But I truly felt that wearing the hijab was a slap in the face for women’s individuality and their bodies. Someone once said that wearing hijab is saying “YES, we women are sex objects, so we HAVE to cover ourselves to protect ourselves from men’s lustful glances!”and when I sat next to the goth girl I thought about how some Muslims would call her a “whore” because she was wearing a short skirt. But she was such a nice girl. And I felt dirty. I felt like a hypocrite. I still wore hijab for 1 more year after that goth girl incident and then I took it off.
Read the full article here.
Deaf punk poet and filmaker Sabina England on punk culture and her experience and relationship with it
Sabina England talks about a lot more than just punk rock in this interview, and I recommend reading it. Quite fascinating. But for the sake of my research, I only included what she said about punk rock and punk culture here.
Deaf Punk Playwright/Poet, Sabina England, Lets it Loose!
Krip-Hop Nation (KHN) - Hello I’m so glad you said yes to an interview! First of all your work is beautiful. Tell us you call yourself a Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright please explains.
Sabina England - ...Anyway, just so we are clear, I didn’t originally call myself a Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright. A Pakistani Muslim teenager in Norway who had followed my works online and was an admirer created the name of my Facebook public page.
So I was surprised to see a page about myself on there, and I became friends with her, and she talked to me about the Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia in Norway that a lot of Muslims, both immigrants and European-born youths, faced from other people. She was drawn to my works, to my anger and political awareness in my art, to my struggle existing as a Deaf South Asian Muslim woman of color immigrant punk rocker in a hearing white man’s world.
Eventually I took over the Facebook page. I like the name of the Facebook page, because it helps shows the world that I am: Deaf, Muslim, Punk, and Playwright. I wanted deaf people out there to see my name come up in results for “deaf” and see that there’s a working deaf artist who has a career in theatre, filmmaking and playwriting, these fields which are very difficult for deaf people to break into. I also wanted Muslims to find me in search results and see that there’s a Muslim woman filmmaker / artist / performer. I wanted other Muslim women to find me and enjoy my works.
And I wanted the world-- whether hearing, deaf, non-Muslim, or Muslim, to see that I am not a stereotypical “deaf and dumb” girl, or that I was NOT a “helpless / oppressed” Muslim girl who needed to be saved....
KHN – As an author you wrote and self-published your first novel, Urdustan (A Collection of Short Stories), a book of short stories about South Asians from all walks of life. Why did you think this book is important and tell us why you end up self-publishing it?
Sabina England – The book has many short stories and features characters from different backgrounds. There are Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, punk rockers and deaf youths, Hasidic Jews and gay people. All the short stories were loosely inspired by true events in my life...
KHN - Your short videos are a mixture of politics, laughter, nature and such. Please give us a brief rundown on “Allah Save the Punk!”...
Sabina England – I made “Allah Save the Punk!” because I wanted to do a light comedy with a storyline using both punk rockers and religious extremists from a Muslim punk rock perspective. Growing up in Northern England in the 1980s, I always liked punk rock and I was just drawn to the subculture for its sheer anger and energy, but also for its political awareness. I just wanted to have fun and make other Muslims laugh at ourselves. Humor is the best medicine! We all know that one person in our community who’s a self-righteous, holier-than-thou person, and I wanted to create a self-righteous character that is so full of themselves and so extreme in their beliefs. I created the Mullah, who was so religious and holy, but somehow ended up with a punk rock daughter. That’s pretty funny, right?!
Also the title “Allah Save the Punk!” was inspired from “God Save the Queen” by Sex Pistols...
KHN - On your website it says you are apart of S.O.S Records, an underground Los Angeles streetpunk label, and have often been linked to the Taqwacores scene. Please explain.
Sabina England – I was a friend with Rob Chaos, the lead singer from Total Chaos, we became friends on MySpace in the mid 00s and stayed in touch. He liked some of my posts and liked my attitude so he asked me to be the face of S.O.S Records, they printed out promotional flyers with my face and put it up at punk shows everywhere! I was also asked to appear in Taqwacore (the documentary) and I said no because I had some problems at the time and I didn’t feel ready to do the project. So they used one of my photos (with my permission) and put it in the film. So ever since then a lot of people have associated me with both.
Read the whole interview here.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Minnesota Historical Society's entry for punk boots in their Collections Department
This is just a small piece written for some punk boots in the Collections Department of the Minnesota Historical Society.
Collections Up Close: Punk Boots
Hello! I am Eleni Leventopoulos, one of the spring 2019 MNHS 3D Objects interns. A huge part of my internship was cataloging new acquisitions to the collection. There was such a wide array of objects, every day was a new discovery and challenge. One of my favorite finds was a pair of black leather punk boots worn by a Minnesota woman in the 1980s. The history of punk is fascinating and these boots help document Minneapolis’ place in that story by filling gaps in MNHS’ music collection. With its roots in the 1960’s garage rock movement, punk was more than just music. It enveloped art, culture, fashion, literature and philosophy. Anarchism, nihilism, and even minimalism influenced and paved the way for punk.
While studying abroad in 1986, the donor purchased these boots from a shop on the famed Kings Road in London. Since the 1950’s, Kings Road had been the place for youth fashion. The 50’s saw miniskirts, the 60’s brought legends like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles and by the 1970’s, the punk scene had moved in when Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren opened a shop at 430 King’s Road. Westwood is a well known British fashion designer who helped punk and new wave fashion enter the mainstream, while Malcolm McLaren was the promoter and manager for well known punk bands like the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls.
Punk came to Minnesota with the New York Dolls in 1974 when they performed at the State Fair and spread the flames of punk to Minneapolis. Minnesota had embraced punk by 1979 when the Walker Art Center hosted Marathon '80: A New-No-Now Wave Festival at the U of M FieldHouse. Marketed as a “preview to Rock in the 80’s” M80 brought punk talent to attention.
“It was a rickety venue, but with all the assembled talent and excitement surrounding each band’s performance, [M-80] felt like something historic was happening...In my mind, it was equal to Woodstock or Altamont or the Beatles at Shea Stadium. There was a great scene building in the Twin Cities.” - Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü, from his memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody
When the owner returned to Minneapolis in 1987, influential punk bands like the Suicide Commandos, the Suburbs, The Replacements, Husker Du, Babes in Toyland, and the Flamin’ Oh’s had formed in Minnesota. Punk had already splintered shot off into many directions, evolving to other sounds like harcore, ska punk, psychobilly, and new wave.
Popular punk hang outs in Minneapolis included Jay’s Longhorn, a club in downtown Minneapolis, the record shop Oar Folkjokeopus and CC Tap at Lyndale and 26th, Goofy’s Upper Deck, and of course, First Avenue and 7th Street Entry. It was here that the fashion of punk could be seen. Champions of the ‘do-it-yourself’ mentality, punks made and altered their own clothes. Punk fashion has evolved depending on the time and place, seeing influence of glam rock, skater touches, transformation into new wave and embracing androgney. Staple items of punk fashion included jeans and black leather jackets. These were decorated and personalized with pins, patches, paint, safety pins, spikes and studs. When the donor wore these boots around Minneapolis she would have fit right in...
See the original piece here.
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