Visit www.revelinnewyork.com for Ari's cultural suggestions in NYC and beyond. The Slits are probably the single most important all-girl punk band in the history of music. A bold statement, we know, but certainly not a controversial one. As a 14 year old, Ari Up served as the band's flamboyant front woman and helped develop The Slits' pioneering punky reggae sound. She grew up in England surrounded by punk royalty. Her mother, who is married to John Lydon of the Sex Pistols, ran a sort of punk house, where it wasn't uncommon to have people like The Clash and Jimi Hendrix roll through. After the demise of The Slits, Ari went on to form the New Age Steppers with Nenah Cherry and Mark Stewart of The Pop Group. She moved to Brooklyn in the eighties and later to Belize, where she lived naked in the jungles to escape the yuppie culture that the decade embraced. Recently, Ari recreated The Slits to pick up the band's unfinished mission to fight for musical expression, women, and cultural freedom. She splits her time between Flatbush, Brooklyn and Jamaica.