Shawna Kenny, author, zine star, and all things bad punk from the DC area. She is the author of her memoir, I Was A Teenage Dominatrix, which has just been republished with a new cover by Jeffrey Everett of Rockets Are Red. Everett is a jack of many artistic trades, being a designer, illustrator, and author, and over the past 20 years has worked on artwork for numerous bands featured in Punk News, as well as corporate He has also done a tremendous amount of work for nonprofit organizations. . The duo will be displaying their items at the Punk Rock Museum in an all-new temporary exhibit titled. reflection. This exhibit is currently on display in Las Vegas and is open for a limited time only. Contributing editor Samantha Barrett spoke to the two about their collaboration.
Jeffrey, you did the book art for the latest pressing of Shawna’s Teenage Dominatrix. How did this collaboration come about?
Jeffrey Everett: I created my first poster, The Bouncing Souls, for DC’s The Black Cat in 2010. Shona happened to be at the show and she got the poster. She liked it enough to hang it up, so maybe she saw herself in it, riding the subway, listening to music, watching life go by. I don’t know. She inquired about the artwork for a new edition of the book. I told her I was a much better illustrator now and that her books deserved to be unique.
Personally, it was great to meet her. After all, she was someone I knew, but I didn’t know her personally. She wrote the books I read when I was in my 20s, she helped me do book shows at small hardcore venues that I loved, and she knew all the people. It was very creative. I’m really honored that everything went well and I made a new friend who begged me for pictures of my cat.
You two are currently at the Punk Rock Museum. reflection. Can you tell me about the overall process of putting this together?
Everett: In my case, I had to edit over 400 posters down to 40 that could be displayed. I was lucky enough to have the lovely Lisa Johnson helping me organize and edit her work, choosing her work and talking to me about her selections. We interacted a lot. Some of her favorites were not mine and some I had to explain why I loved them. It was a good collaboration. The hardest part was finding all the posters. In my 20+ year career, I’ve produced over 600 posters, but I could have organized them better. There were some posters that I couldn’t find…
Shauna Kenney: Jeffrey invited me to write the intro to his book. Let It Bleed, and then ended up doing some shows with him to promote it. This coincided with the re-release of my memoir, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, for which he designed the cover, so it seemed like a natural collaboration. Since I’m not a visual artist, I decided to share some of Punk’s archives and some of his ephemera dating back to 1985, when I started his zine. At this time, I started his zine, then became a journalist, then an author, then a teacher.
The show is opening, how is it going?
Kenny: Let’s see what happens! I handed things over and Jeffrey designed everything around curator Lisa Johnson’s vision. I know her from having photographed her during her time in Los Angeles. There’s a meetup tonight, and on Saturday I’m teaching gin making using an old flyer from the Safari Club, a club I booked in Washington, D.C., many years ago.
Everett: All setup and installation is complete now. The wonderful staff at the Punk Rock Museum assisted us. Thank you Mona, Baxter and Vinnie for your cooperation! We are thrilled to be working with this museum, which is already an amazing destination and continues to get even better. I’ve walked by the place several times and keep finding new things.
Jeffrey, I literally have a bunch of posters of you up in my house. After more than 20 years of highly productive design practice, what were the deciding factors in how you selected the works to be included in this exhibition?
EVERETT: Lisa Johnson had a lot of great insight into what goes up. She had some pieces she wanted, such as her work in Girls Against Boys, but it just didn’t work out on the show. She had some choices and thoughts that made me reconsider her work and see it in a new light. If you have too many pieces, you’ll have to edit or cut out the pieces, but that’s okay. I think this exhibit shows the scope of the work, not just the band, but the growth in style and skills. Some works have obvious flaws, but any creative person will find them in their work.
Of all the works on display, which one was your favorite?
Everett: Yeah…it’s like picking a favorite child. If I had to choose, I’d say last year’s Social Distortion series has it all. Seeing all four posters working together as a long series makes me smile at the wall. There’s a lot to see: cars, bikes, dogs in the windows, small signs. There was thought in all those details. Mike Ness personally invested in changing details to better reflect his life, including a different car, white wall tires, and a different guitar.
Shauna, how did growing up in the punk subculture of Washington DC influence your writing?
Kenny: Growing up in the DC scene influenced every aspect of my being in terms of valuing certain values. Over the past ten years, my writing has shifted away from music to shine a light on marginalized artists, cultures, people, and issues (animal rights, prison reform, transportation and the environment, people with interesting stories to tell). I started to focus on it. If I hadn’t grown up in this scene, I wouldn’t have been so aware of the personal and the political at a young age. We were protesting right in front of the White House and handing out food on the National Mall. All of that made me feel like everyone could participate in their own community, this democracy, this world in their own way. It taught me veganism, the DIY ethos, straight edge, feminism, anti-racist activism, and acting with integrity in ways that inform my story choices, my teachings, and my way of moving through the world. He gave it to me. DC taught me how to build community, and I carry that with me everywhere.
You are totally a gin star. How important are flyers and zines in creating this subculture?
Kenny: Even before the internet, flyers and zines were a way to communicate with a wide network of people. As a shy kid, zines gave me a reason to talk to people, interviewing bands and exchanging my zines with people all over the world. In this digital, social media-heavy world we’re in now, I find myself returning to the meditative feeling of making things with my hands, so I teach a zine class at a local museum and am currently working on a bread and butter project. I am sharing my work at the Clock Museum. I’m also excited to see a young man making his zine on TikTok and YouTube. They’re all so smart, so it’s cool to see that they’re as passionate about this form of self-expression as I am.
The flyer was the artwork of the day. I really value the handmade collage-like things I created with Photoshop and design software. It’s a kind of handcrafted aesthetic that has always appealed to me.
I totally agree. Punk News is the way I use to talk to people that I probably would never have the courage to talk to…
Jeffrey, you’ve published a hardcover book to commemorate the last 20 years of your work. Let It Bread What was the process behind releasing this book?
Everett: Oh, how much do you want me to tell you about this? It was a lot of work, and it took over two years. I started reading this book when we were living in a pandemic and my parents were cleaning up lines as they got older. I don’t want my kids to dress up in her 600+ posters (400+ live posters and 200+ gallery and personal works) and wonder what to do with them. I thought that a well-crafted book would be easier for them to handle. Indeed, the book is 444 pages long and oversized, weighing in at 7 pounds. So I hope you all continue to buy my remaining copies!
Technically, we’ve broken down all the work that needs to be done. So of course I made the cover first! I originally wanted to name this piece “Facing the Music” based on my gallery show at Lost His Origins in 2017. Another design company started on it first and published a book about two years before mine. I named my company “Rockets Are Red” based on a Girls Against Boys song, but went back to them again with “Let It Breathe.” Then I remembered the reference “Let It Bleed” and everything clicked. Yes, it’s a Stones reference, but I also liked that it was a design reference (the ink bleeds from the page) and covered my design intent of letting your heart seep through the work. I think I directed 15 different covers before arriving at this one.
Once that was done, each part needed to be documented. Let’s write a lot. Get people like Patton Oswalt, Brian Kienlen, and Scott McCloud to write something for your book, get paper and printing options, how to publish and finance it, author photos (ugh), and more. Let’s make a request. I kept a list of things I needed on my phone and did it a little bit each day. Emails and thoughts. I liken it to building a canoe. First, shake the ax wide to shape it, then use a knife to carve out the curves, and finally use sandpaper.
I had a lot of help from friends old and new and it meant a lot to me. There are too many to list, so I would like to express my gratitude to everyone here.
The book is on sale now and can be found at let-it-bleed.com.
What are you two listening to lately?
Kenney: I still listen to a lot of old songs. For some reason, I was listening to Avail all the way here in Las Vegas. It’s a good travel song. I put together a playlist for the Punk Rock Museum with all the bands I booked or loved from the late 80s, including Gorilla Biscuit, SOIA, Underdog, and Soul Side. I also like Friendship Commanders, Turnstile, End It, and Scowl.
Everett: Over the past few years, I’ve been working with bands such as Idles, End It, Amir and the Sniffers, Jeff Rosenstock, and Scawl, as well as the established Bouncing Souls, Tuscadero, Velocity Girl, and Girls Against Girls. I listen to a lot of Boys, Against, etc. myself! 