riot grrrl Los Angeles 1992-1995 mixtape
interviewees in order interviewed
Debbie Bean
Slave Goddess (zine)
Arcelia Medina
Housewife Turned Assassin (zine)
Lucretia Tye Jasmine
The Meat Hook (zine)
12.23.10
Dennybird
musician
10.20.12
Darcy
Crown for Athena (band)
10.21.12
Valentina
Tummyache (band)
5.18.13
Raquel
Tummyache (band)
3.30.13
Beth
Oiler, Fleabag (bands)
4.9.13
Brett
The Donnas (band)
5.11.13
Arcelia
Housewife Turned Assassin (zine)
with each interview about:
riot grrrl art show
7.24.12
rg zines
8.27.12
rg and boys/men
8.27.12
Shulie Firestone
4.13.13
Courtney Love
7.3.13
riot grrrl
7.17.13
Sidewalk interviews on Fairfax as we waited in front of Cinefamily for the sold out screening of The Punk Singer, with Kathleen Hanna Q & A after
Julie
Jewell
Sara Catherine
Veronica
9.21.13
Irina Contreras
10.18.13
Raquel
Tummyache (band)
10.13.13
Robin
Foxfire (band), Sweetheart (zine)
1.15.14
Gabie
Canopy (band)
5.31.14
Jennifer Precious Finch
L7 (band)
2.1.15
Evelyn McDonnell
music journalist
6.17.15
Michelle Juliette Carr
Jabberjaw club founder, owner
11.22.15
Debbie Bean
Slave Goddess (zine)
4.6.16
Larissa
“Rebel Girl Radio” DJ
12.14.16
12.16.16
12.19.16
Kelli
That Girl (zine)
7.9.18
Cynthia
6.9.19
Allison
Bratmobile (band), Girl Germs (zine), Sex Stains (band)
10.27.21
you and me and Josie and the Pussycats and riot grrrl
Two comic book covers
Paper and pink ink
Copy and paste printed essay, “you and me and riot grrrl”
16 3/4” x 11 1/2”
8 1/2” x 11 1/2”
2025
I made this artwork because I loved Josie and the Pussycats when I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, and because I was a riot grrrl in the 1990s. Also, because I’m an ecofeminist who understands that the once demeaning equation of females with animals (wildness to be tamed and controlled, inferior creatures to harness and dominate) is actually empowering and cool; it’s just that patriarchy has exploited and harmed both.
I read Josie and the Pussycats comics and watched their cartoon on television when I was young. In the 2000s, I wrote two essays about riot grrrl, one of which, “you and me and riot grrrl,” I wrote in 2013 and self-published on medium online in 2017. Meanwhile, SiSi - whom I met in riot grrrl in 1992, and who gave to me back then on mixtape cassettes all the riot grrrl music I ever heard, and about whom I wrote in “you and me and riot grrrl,” sent to me in 2016 the Josie and the Pussycats cartoon that’s in this artwork. I decided to paste “you and me and riot grrrl” into the cartoon as a way to further emphasize the connection between Josie and the Pussycats and riot grrrl.
Riot Grrrl is a third wave feminist, music, and art movement. It began in the mid-1980s, gaining media attention in the early 1990s. Riot Grrrl’s do-it-yourself punk rock infrastructure allowed girls and women to create their own art and music scenes.
Josie and the Pussycats is a story line about an all-female rock band that was published by Archie Comics as a comic book series from 1963-1982. The band is a trio of women who write and perform their own music: rehearsing, carrying their own equipment, and playing gigs. Artist Dan DeCarlo created the storyline, inspired by spouse, Josie, and her cat costume. Since 1982, several more comics about the band have been published. Albums by Josie and the Pussycats have been recorded, including one for the animated TV series about the band that aired in 1970, and another for the soundtrack of the movie about the band that was released in 2001. Josie and the Pussycats appear in the series, Riverdale.
Josie and the Pussycats - and riot grrrl - gave their mostly female readership the idea that they could do what boys and men do: be in a band, self-promote, and explore the world by going out into it. The comic book showed girls and women that we could work in collaboration with other girls and women, write our own music, promote and manage ourselves, carry all our own gear…and go on tour!
Bibliography
Lucretia Tye Jasmine. “you and me and riot grrrl.” medium online. February 17, 2017. https://medium.com/@lucretiatyejasmine/you-and-me-and-riot-grrrl-64a5c413bd9e Digital link. Accessed 4.6.25.
Pulse magazine. Josie and the Pussycats “The Original Riot Grrrls.” April, 1994.