Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk

by Kathleen Hanna Narrated by Kathleen Hanna

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

We're totally stoked for this punk rock memoir from the one and only Kathleen Hanna.

An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want

Kathleen Hanna's band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl” and “Double Dare Ya” are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna's raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul­tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band” in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its exclusivity.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful-and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Hanna’s book is raw, honest, poetic, insightful, and often funny. Her political evolution is particularly gratifying…An impressively perspicacious memoir from one of feminism’s most influential artists.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A fantastic journey into an unconventional life, pulsing with raw energy and vulnerability that I witnessed firsthand. It’s honest, funny, witty, and smart. And most of all, it's important to the herstory of Kathleen’s place in blazing new trails.” — Joan Jett 

“Until I started reading this book, the idea of Kathleen Hanna seemed more real to me than the person. But with every word, Kathleen exposes the fleshy humanness of being a cult icon on a mission. While Rebel Girl is as defiant as the song that inspired its title, there’s a counterweight of humility and openness that adds new perspective to the songs and stories of Kathleen’s life. This book is something special.” — Hayley Williams

“A no-holds-barred account…Hanna’s visceral prose captivates, and she’s refreshingly candid about the riot grrrl movement’s failures…It’s a raw and revealing portrait of a vital figure in the feminist punk scene.” — Publishers Weekly

“Hanna holds nothing back in a debut that traces her chaotic childhood through to founding the riot grrrl punk feminist movement and her time in such bands as Viva Knievel and Le Tigre. Visceral prose is undergirded by clear-eyed insight into the flaws of early punk feminist activism—including its overwhelming whiteness—making this a memoir with depth and edge to spare.” — One of Publishers Weekly’s Top 15 Summer Reads

“Hanna delivers a searing memoir in which the pioneering punk icon recalls her journey through music and activism…She makes the case for hope and resilience in the face of hardship—illustrated by…the lasting positive impact of her work.” — W Magazine, “The Best, Most Talked-About Books of 2024 (So Far)”

“A timely refresher on resilience, the power of protest art and the tender humanity that we must not lose. . . Like a comic book hero, Hanna has seemed to gather superhuman strength with every blow she receives. . . all while churning out ever more powerful and furious music. Rebel Girl unapologetically reveals the vul­nerability behind that image. . . [Hanna] reflects on her own failures and culpability, acknowledging them in a way that is refresh­ing and constructive. . . . Hanna intentionally busts open her feminist idol identity, liberating her­self from our perceptions and serving some hard-won wisdom.” — BookPage (starred review)

“Gripping.” — NYLON, selected for “The It Girl’s Summer Reading List”

“A raucous, rousing tale about the power of music and activism…Hanna’s story is a full-bodied portrait of a fighter and activist who has used music as a way to tackle adversity…A vivid, funny, and powerful memoir.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“Hanna offers short vignettes [that]...capture the life of a young woman trying to navigate a sexist culture while simultaneously finding her creative voice. There is an equal sense that Rebel Girl was written as a sort of road map for a new generation to pick up their own instruments and rock the world.” — Vogue, “The Best Books of 2024 So Far”

“Rebel Girl is Hanna in full: politically radical, funny, and fearless. Just as Hanna has never held back as a performer, she writes unflinchingly.” — Vanity Fair

“Searing...Rebel Girl is a startlingly generous account of a life spent surviving worlds of male violence both personal and professional in order to build a better world for herself and the people she loves. It’s a riot.” — Surface

“[Hanna’s] views have changed, but her honest, funny and raw voice has not.” — Los Angeles Times, “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in May”

“It’s hard to convey just how influential Kathleen Hanna has been to the world of music. Her time in Bikini Kill helped reshape punk, and her work in Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin also abounds with bracing musical and lyrical moments. With this memoir, she chronicles her life on and off stage — and offers a firsthand perspective on an evolving art form.” — InsideHook, “The 10 Books You Should Be Reading This May”

“With this book, [Hanna] creates space for her own story as well as the larger context of her time and the need for art as a creative agent of empathy and change. Hanna is a troubadour unafraid to speak out...Exuberant... With its episodic style of vivid, swift chapters and Hanna’s kinetic voice, Rebel Girl is a bold portrait. For the sake of late 20th century history alone, it’s a crucial book about feminist politics and art. But it’s also a tender examination of a woman who survived abuse and sexual assault.” — Los Angeles Times

“In her fascinating book, Hanna shares her own story and details how she found her way into a music scene that would not only define its era, but also make a lasting influence on pop culture. Her sharp wit, honesty, and humor are as apparent here as they are in her lyrics, and the opportunity to hear first hand about her life and work is something fans—long time or brand new—shouldn't miss.” — Town & Country (Best Books to Read this May)

“In Rebel Girl, the punk frontwoman reveals the story of her life — the men who tried to stop her, the women who kept her going and the boy who made her a mother...Hanna is super funny...Rebel Girl documents Hanna’s long career as an underground artist and musician, and its striking intersections with the mainstream...Her tale does have an epic quality... In Rebel Girl, Hanna amasses an impressive arsenal. Every time another man diminishes her and her work, she sharpens a sword, carves out another space for herself and her friends and starts filling it with interesting material.” — New York Times

“Kathleen Hanna is a living legend: the frontwoman of beloved bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, and an indefatigable feminist activist...Rebel Girl offers deeper insights and more candid reflections, particularly about the shortcomings of the movement she helped launch.” — Bustle

“Hanna’s new memoir...applies [her] caustic, introspective, politically astute, and often mischievously playful voice to the ups and downs of her own life story...The final product...contains moving yet incisive, generously frank passages about the sexual assaults she survived as a teen and young adult... Candid and reflective, Rebel Girl tells the stories behind her best-known songs...and reframes her most mythologized brushes with the mainstream.” — Time

“Fans of Bikini Kill are just the first people who will be drawn to Kathleen Hanna’s memoir about being a riot grrrl, fighting to make it in the sexist music industry and the joys of being a feminist punk.” — Parade, “The 13 Best New Book Releases of May 2024”

“[Hanna] chronicles her life story in Rebel Girl with a visceral voice.” — Seattle Times

Library Journal

★ 05/01/2024

Bikini Kill frontwoman Hanna's memoir is a raucous, rousing tale about the power of music and activism. Before becoming a pioneer of the riot grrrl movement of the early 1990s, Hanna grew up in a dysfunctional and abusive household. She used music and singing as a means of escape. After graduating from high school, she attended the progressive Evergreen State College, where she developed her talents in photography, fashion, and spoken-word poetry. It was the feminist writer Kathy Acker who first motivated Hanna to start a band in order to reach wider audiences. Hanna's memoir is chock-full of details about her romantic relationships and her friendships with Kurt Cobain, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Joan Jett, and Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi. She notes her run-ins with Courtney Love and her inadvertent inspiration for Nirvana's breakthrough single "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This is not a memoir about name-dropping, tales of woe, or feminism. Hanna's story is a full-bodied portrait of a fighter and activist who has used music as a way to tackle adversity. VERDICT A vivid, funny, and powerful memoir that will appeal to rock lovers and music historians.—Leah K. Huey

Kirkus Reviews

2024-02-14
The lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill chronicles her life and career.

Before Hanna became a beloved musician and co-founder of the Riot grrrl movement, she was a child trying to survive domestic violence. Her father was a labor union leader whose “untreated alcoholism” led to her parents’ divorce. Hanna left home for Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she majored in photography. There, she met Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox, and they formed Bikini Kill. In the years that followed, the band toured the country, coining famous phrases like “Girls to the Front,” which doubled as a call for girls to join bands and a way for punk girls to feel safer in the face of harassment from male audience members. The author’s troubled past and the realities she observed at organizations like SafePlace, a domestic violence shelter, highly influenced her lyrics, many of them focused on experiences with gender-based violence and sexual assault. After leaving Bikini Kill, surviving Lyme disease, getting married to Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, adopting a child, and founding the band Le Tigre, Hanna reflects on everything she has learned in her long career. She is particularly circumspect about the Riot grrrl movement and her views on race, both of which she says have evolved considerably, as well as her history surviving violence. “Male violence didn’t create me,” she writes, “it just made it harder to make my art—but I did it anyway.” Hanna’s book is raw, honest, poetic, insightful, and often funny. Her political evolution is particularly gratifying, especially for readers who grew up with Hanna’s self-admittedly imperfect activism. At times, the text is more of a stream-of-consciousness rendering of chronological events than a structured narrative, a style that is mostly charming but occasionally confusing.

An impressively perspicacious memoir from one of feminism’s most influential artists.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159845573
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/14/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	405,246

Videos