Two seminal documentarians of the American punk scene come together Saturday, June 20th from 4 to 6:00 PM at Arcana: Books on the Arts for one afternoon only to celebrate newly re-released editions of two of their legendary and long out-of-print books. Cynthia Connolly's Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes From the DC Punk Underground (79–86) is finally back in print with a seventh edition that includes a brand new, eight page afterword by the Washington DC-based author and publisher. And Los Angeles' own Bryan Ray Turcotte's Fucked Up + Photocopied: Instant Art Of The Punk Rock Movement - the great visual history of the LA punk flyer in book form - is back with a 15th Anniversary edition.
Conceived of by Cynthia Connolly, assembled with Leslie Clague and Sharon Cheslow, and originally released in December of 1988, Banned in DC collects hundreds of photos, flyers, and stories documenting the DC punk scene from the late seventies through the mid-eighties. It includes images of local bands Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Faith, Marginal Man, Scream, Red C, Rites of Spring, Nuclear Crayons, Insurrection, Hate from Ignorance, G.I., Bloody Mannequin Orchestra, Void, Second Wind, and many more. In honor of sharing the event with Bryan Ray, an avid collector of punk-era ephemera, Cynthia Connolly is bringing her personal stock of original flyers from the nineties promoting her U.S. photo tour with Pat Graham. Fans will be able to select a vintage flyer with each purchase of Banned in DC - while supplies last! Also launching will be her new 'zine Big Lots; published by the always great Deadbeat Club Press. Limited to two hundred copies, it is a selection of 35mm half-frame and landscape photography taken in the DIY documentary spirit we’ve come to expect of her.
Bryan Ray Turcotte's Fucked Up + Photocopied: Instant Art Of The Punk Rock Movement is a collection of frenetic flyers produced for the American Punk scene between 1977 and 1985. Many were created by the musicians themselves and demonstrate the emphasis within the movement on individuality and the manic urge of its members to create things anew. Aso available on Saturday will be Fucked Up +: The Reader - the complete collected essays from Fucked Up + Photocopied and Punk Is Dead: Punk Is Everything self-published in a highly legible format in a limited edition of one hundred copies.
Cynthia Connolly is a photographer, curator, letterpress printer, and artist who lives in the Washington, DC area. She has published Banned in DC through her independent press Sun Dog Propaganda. Connolly's photographic work, postcards, and books have been exhibited internationally, and are in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Smithsonian Museum of American History, and Corcoran Gallery of Art. She was prominently included in the genre-defining "Beautiful Losers" show that toured the United States and Europe from 2004–2009.
Bryan Ray Turcotte spent his twenties on the road with his band while managing to hold down his job at the legendary punk record label Slash. He has co-published Fucked Up + Photocopied..., Shepard Fairey: Post No Bills, Punk Is Dead: Punk Is Everything and Jeff Gold's 101 Essential Rock Records... in collaboration with Gingko Press, and the forthcoming It All Dies Anyway: LA, Jabberjaw, and the End Of An Era with Rizzoli. He co-owns Teenage Teardrops and Beta Petrol, an independent record label specializing in vinyl-only releases and a music supervision and production company. His archive of Punk-era publications, posters, flyers, and ephemera is legendary.
So, break out the leather and hair gel, resurrect the youthful attitude, and head to Arcana Saturday, June 20th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM - the same afternoon as The Culver City Arts District "Summer Crawl" - for this musically-charged Punk publishing extravaganza!
