- 1 week ago
Black musical artists, make-up artists, and influencers reflect on their experiences in the Punk, Goth & Alt scenes. Rico Nasty, Raisa Flowers, Lust $ick Puppy, and others talk about their struggles finding their place in the scene. By redefining the aesthetics and expectations of the punk world, they have found ways to express and be themselves authentically while inspiring the next generation.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Punk means going against the status quo.
00:04Being like, no, fuck you.
00:06Like, I'm gonna be what I want
00:09and you're not gonna like it and I don't care.
00:13I never thought that like anybody would like,
00:16except me, but you're acting too white
00:18or like, why are you trying to dress like white people?
00:20Big alternative is when you take that
00:22and you write it on the tissue
00:24and you wipe your ass with it.
00:26Like they wouldn't classify a darker skinned person
00:29to be alternative.
00:31They will classify you as being ghetto.
00:33Colorism is a big part of why black people
00:36can't just be expressive of themselves
00:38and white supremacy as well.
00:41Let's put that in there.
00:42I don't have to be the best.
00:43I don't have to know all the knowledge
00:45to mosh and fucking punch people in the head.
00:47That's what I want to do.
00:49I feel like there's nothing more goth
00:52or punk or alternative than being black.
01:01They say the scene isn't about what you look like,
01:04but how you feel.
01:05Black alternative people have always existed,
01:08but it has not been without alienation and ridicule
01:11in whichever scene they inhabit.
01:13Even though it's easy to spot how blackness
01:16and alternative goth and punk style intersect.
01:20My name is Katie.
01:21I am a filmmaker and alternative clown from Brooklyn.
01:24In my formative years,
01:26there were pretty brutal consequences
01:28for not fitting a monolithic black mold.
01:30So I always identified deeply with feeling
01:32like an outsider.
01:36I turned to music and film to know I wasn't alone.
01:40My earliest memory is of Rochelle
01:42in the 1996 cult classic, The Craft.
01:45She was frequently bullied and struggled
01:47being a token witch in her coven.
01:50When I look back at the roles I did in the 90s,
01:52I kind of call them alterna black girl magic chick roles.
01:57You know what I mean?
01:58I did not realize what a big deal it was
02:02to be the person of color
02:04in basically what would have been an all-white movie.
02:06What was your response that you were getting,
02:08I guess, after the film had, you know,
02:11kind of been out there for a couple years?
02:12The thing about a movie like The Craft is it did okay
02:14when it was out, right?
02:16But it started to grow and become a cult movie.
02:19One day I was somewhere random in America
02:21in the middle of the country
02:22and I get off an Amtrak train
02:23and there's like a 12-year-old black girl
02:25and she goes,
02:27you, you, you, you, you're in the movie!
02:32And I went, oh.
02:35She's having the same response I had
02:37to seeing someone who looked like me
02:39when I was four-age in a movie,
02:40which was very few and far between.
02:43You are, in a sense, part of the pioneers, right?
02:46Part of being the pioneer generation
02:48means it's lonely and painful.
02:51Hey, baby, let it go!
02:52The past few years have been a new age
02:55for black people in scenes
02:57that may have once seemed inaccessible.
02:59Rappers and artists Rico Nasty,
03:02Lussic Puppy, and creative makeup artist Raissa Flowers,
03:05as they depict self-expression and artistry
03:08that have often been made invisible
03:10in the black community
03:11and usually perceived as sole domain
03:13of white social outcasts.
03:18You know that you're a black girl, right?
03:20Your hair's supposed to be sewed in, not spiked up.
03:23I did the mohawk with the braids
03:25because that was literally kind of at the peak
03:27where people was like, she's trying to be white.
03:29You know, most women of color,
03:31they prefer to wear their hair like this
03:35and you coming out here with this.
03:37Don't ever tell a black girl what to do with her hair.
03:39I listened to a lot of rock when I was younger
03:42and I felt like I was really judged
03:44by a lot of my black friends
03:47about what I listened to and how I wanted to be.
03:50It kind of annoyed me that a lot of people
03:53are kind of using the punk and alternative aesthetic
03:57in their everyday now
03:59when they made fun of people that were like us.
04:02You know what I'm saying?
04:03When I already lived in Sugar Land,
04:05so that was like a really white area,
04:07I felt kind of like a traitor.
04:09Even though I didn't do anything except express myself,
04:12I was made to feel like that's not what we do.
04:16You're siding with them.
04:17There weren't like a lot of people
04:20who were into the like dark and spooky stuff
04:24that I was into because it was seen as like evil.
04:27What reasons do you think are why we're like limited?
04:31Like even if someone's alternative or different,
04:34they always highlight the light-skinned person.
04:37They will classify you as being ghetto.
04:39You're just saying that because you think
04:41it's related to whiteness.
04:43I hate that they just put that on the black community
04:47and just like I wish people would be more open
04:50than just willing to people who are different.
04:52It makes you want to tone it down like,
04:55y'all can't do it?
04:56A'ight, I see y'all.
04:57As black people in the scene,
04:59no matter how much we show up,
05:01we are continually confronted
05:03by internal and external gatekeepers.
05:05We constantly have to prove how authentic we are
05:08by unrealistic double standards.
05:10What is the craziest reaction you've gotten from somebody
05:14for doing something that is considered alternative?
05:16The worst reaction I've ever gotten is from a white cis man.
05:20Like I was wearing a metal band shirt
05:22and he like came up to me and was like,
05:24who's the first?
05:25Like what was that first album,
05:26that first fucking song or whatever?
05:28And I was like, get the fuck away from me.
05:30So because I have on this shirt
05:31and I probably like paid to be here
05:33and I paid for this merch
05:34because I don't know the music.
05:35I could be a new fan.
05:36Right.
05:37That challenging aspect is annoying.
05:39Like when someone like Third Eye Chakra
05:42turned me into the Blink 182 cover,
05:45people were in the comments like,
05:46y'all don't even know who this,
05:47what this band is.
05:49And I'm like blocked, first of all.
05:51It's so fucking weird to do that when it's punk music.
05:55It's like, bro, this is supposed to be so anti
05:57everything that you're doing to me right now.
05:59You're anti, you know?
06:02You're anti.
06:02You're mad.
06:04Why do you guys think it's important in general
06:07to take space within these, you know, subcultures?
06:11There are very limited platforms for us to represent ourselves,
06:15especially not for Black women.
06:17For me specifically, there was definitely a sense of self-hatred.
06:21I didn't want to be Black.
06:23I didn't want to be a Black alternative kid.
06:25I wanted to be an alternative kid,
06:27which means like straightening my hair and practicing it.
06:31Yeah.
06:31It was a very dark part of my identity
06:36because within me trying to understand the things that I love,
06:41there was also so much self-hatred mixed into it.
06:44I do feel like since I did not, you know,
06:47feel comfortable enough to express myself,
06:50you know, more so when I was younger,
06:51I feel like I had to like, you know, kind of mute myself.
06:56It's an ever-growing thing.
06:57Like, we're continuously like learning how to like,
06:59you know, be comfortable.
07:00Like, I'm still muting myself every day.
07:02I get white people together.
07:03I get all types of people together.
07:05I get gay people together.
07:06I get straight people together.
07:09And we marched together actually,
07:11but you won't ever credit me that because it's like,
07:14then I have too much more.
07:15Right.
07:16It honestly makes me so happy that I make music
07:19in the scene that I make music in
07:21because it is really dominated by white people.
07:25And I really just love to see like brown faces in the crowd,
07:31like, fucking shit up.
07:32Fuck you!
07:33Fuck you!
07:34There's this quote from The Office where Dwight is like,
07:39if you want to get the white people to do something,
07:41you have to get the black people to do it
07:43to get the white people to think it's cool,
07:45then you have to get the time to stop doing it.
07:48And I feel like that is like the thesis of all cultures
07:52and subcultures in this country.
07:54It's hard to ignore the dramatic news shift
07:57to celebrating alternative black femmes on the internet.
08:00While the Black Lives Matter movement cuts through social media
08:03and social conversation,
08:05but whilst many more are receptive to imagery of black people
08:09embracing alternative identities,
08:11it's not without its battles.
08:13I really hate the fact that like after, you know,
08:16like the whole George Floyd situation,
08:18now all of a sudden everybody's Black Lives Matter,
08:21all of a sudden everybody wants to like spam posts
08:24like black women and black people like that are alternative.
08:26But it's like, where was all this energy before?
08:29Like, why does it take somebody to have to die
08:32for you to give a shit or pretend like you give a shit?
08:35Like that rubs me the wrong way.
08:36The algorithm is biased and if you're not looking for black punk girls,
08:41like you're probably not going to see them on your feed.
08:43People look down on us and they copied us later on
08:47and it's just like...
08:48Black people create everything.
08:50Black people are the originators of everything.
08:52Who was the first person to show an electric guitar?
08:54A black lady.
08:55Right, right.
08:56Black woman.
08:57Right.
08:57Elvis stole from...
08:58What was it?
08:59Chuck Berry?
08:59Chuck Berry was a black man.
09:01The stretching of the ears.
09:03Right.
09:03Culture.
09:04Body mod is...
09:05Tattoos on your face.
09:06Right.
09:06Means something.
09:07The amount of piercings you have on your nose
09:09means how many properties you owned in some tribes.
09:12Like it all goes back to our roots.
09:15I used to feel so sorry.
09:16I'm so sorry I chose to cut my hair off
09:18and get piercings.
09:20But it's like, no, I'm a blessing.
09:24Just like having the courage to be like,
09:25yeah I did that and I'm not hurting anybody.
09:27And that's what alt means to me.
09:29I need people to know that black can look like anything.
09:32I know through my existence that people understand
09:36that black is expansive.
09:39And that's really beautiful to me.
09:42Like when I'm walking around, I'll see like younger girls,
09:45even black girls especially.
09:47And they're like looking at me like,
09:48oh my gosh, I've never seen that before.
09:50Yeah.
09:50And you can tell like,
09:51they're like, I want to do that.
09:54You know, it helps open up that imagination.
09:56Having black skin, having black parents,
10:00stepping out into the world and facing just like any type of racial,
10:04any littlest type of racial profiling is fun.
10:07That's shit.
10:08And it is alternative.
10:09Being black is alternative.
10:10Because guess what?
10:11Being black is different.
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