“This is what you did in the 90s…you sent it in the mail,” Kathleen Hanna says as she shows us her band Bikini Kill‘s first cassette, complete with hand-printed lyrics and slogans. The mode for grassroots activism and self-publishing has changed drastically, but harnessing inner power to find your voice and communicate a real message is still as admirable as ever. In this Q&A, Hanna reflects on the words she first wrote to express the riot grrrl movement’s message–“I can see how nervous I was about including everybody,” she says–and goes through her personal archives, all of which are hand printed and bound “which I think now is completely insane.” As individuals continue to break down barriers and inspire us to think beyond gender (what’s up, Brittney Griner), the archive becomes increasingly important to preserve. “I think about younger girls reading that, and that makes me really happy,” Hanna says, “because nobody said that to me.”
Be sure to check out VFiles exclusive Bikini Kill capsule collection, available Thursday June 6.
Filmed in collaboration with Bicephaly Pictures
Video Editor: Ani Simon-Kennedy; Thanks to: Erin Greenwell, Cailin Yatsko
