K8 Hardy photo by Mark Kendall
Each week, Lizzy Goodman guides you through the dirty streets of rock and roll.
I knew something interesting was happening when my dad started emailing me about Pussy Riot. An old-school lefty, philosophy professor, and the parent responsible for introducing me to Bob Dylan (mom, you get credit for Bruce Springsteen and the Beach Boys) it’s not surprising that a group of Russian activist feminist punks would appear on his Guardian newsfeed, but it is a little surprising that they would make such an impression. In a long and giddy phone call my dad gushed about how these women represented a kind of brazen political protest you just don’t see anymore — youth harnessing the power of art against the man. “One of them is even philosopher,” he said, referring to unofficial frontwoman Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a fourth year philosophy student, artist and mother.
“Somehow, three young feminists managed to make fans of Barack Obama and Björk in the same few days.”
In case you’re just getting to this story, the Wiki version of who Pussy Riot is and why they matter goes as follows: Last September Vladimir Putin announced his intention to reclaim the Russian presidency. Widely criticized elections followed, inspiring a wave of protests as well as the formation of Pussy Riot, “an anonymous Russian feminist performance art group,” according to the band. They proceeded with their professed goal, to deliver “a series of peaceful performances in highly visible places.” And that’s how you end up with amazing YouTube clips of a crew of colorfully dressed riot grrrls in masks (balaclavas) singing their song “Putin Pissed Himself” on a subway platform in Moscow. That’s also how three of them — Maria Alekhina, Ekaterina Samucevich and Tolokonnikova — ended up in jail. In February, they performed “Virgin Mary, Please Drive Putin Away” on the pulpit of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and they’ve been under lock and key ever since.
Pussy Riot Literature. Photo: Mark Kendall
The flamboyance of Pussy Riot’s act, their government’s excessively response and the threat to the very idea of free speech their imprisonment represents, plus the current tension in Putin’s relationship with the international community due to his support of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s war against his own people, converged in perfect storm of pop art and politics. Somehow, three young feminists managed to make fans of Barack Obama and Björk in the same few days.
Last week at the Ace Hotel here in New York, Le Tigre and MEN co-founder JD Samson organized a reading — held the night before the court was scheduled to render a verdict — of various statements by the Pussy Riot women throughout their imprisonment. . Le Tigre co-founder, writer, and feminist punk icon Johanna Fateman was among the participants. “The strong response from Western artists, I think, derives from Pussy Riot’s ability to frame these protest-interventions as art,” she told me. “If they weren’t a band, but simply protestors, sadly, I don’t think there would be this interest and sympathy.” She pointed out that a lot of the mainstream support for the band is rooted in general objections to the attack on free speech their imprisonment represents. But for Fateman, and many of the participants in the packed ACE reading like Justin Vivian Bond, and actress Chloë Sevigny, the band represents the kind of activism-as-art and art-as-activism approach that is at the heart of riot grrrl culture and punk rock in general. “I believe in freedom of speech of course,” Fateman explained. “But I am also in agreement with their specifically feminist analysis of Putinist repression, their pointed critique of the Church’s collusion with his regime etcetera. It would be cool if their lyrics and philosophy got more attention.”
Mx Justin Vivian Bond. Photo by Mark Kendall
The morning after the ACE event, a (female) judge read a verdict sentencing the three woman to two years in prison while the pale, drawn righteous punk rockers sat like captured prey on display in the glass case in the center of the courtroom and rolled their eyes. Afterwards, Tolokonnikova’s husband passed out a copy of the new Pussy Riot single, “Putin Lights Up the Fires.” Their message is clear: “The country is going, the country is going into the streets boldly/ The country is going, the country is going to bid farewell to the regime/ The country is going, the country is going, like a feminist wedge/ And Putin is going, Putin is going to say goodbye like a sheep.” From the beginning Pussy Riot has been saying, if you believe in free speech, you are Pussy Riot. If you believe in the right to peaceful protest, you are Pussy Riot. If you believe in freedom of sexual behavior and expression, you are Pussy Riot. If you believe in women’s equal rights, you are Pussy Riot. We are all Pussy Riot, even my dad.
