Beyond the brightly colored hair, facial piercings, and mosh pits, the punk music scene has layers of history and support. PunkCon, a punk rock conference held at California State University Fullerton on Saturday, paid special attention to highlighting expression within the genre with a variety of performances and panels.
PunkCon, co-founded in 2019 by CSUF Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies Maren Rios Hernandez, held its third biennial conference, described as “part academic conference, part show.” For Ríos-Hernández, it's important that punk's stories be told by actual punks, not outsiders to the community.
“In academia, people sit experts down and explain who we are and what we're about. They're not from the community and they don't look like us,” Rios Hernández said. “But they will write a book about us and get credit for it. But we are the ones who have the archives. We are the ones who have the stories, and we are the ones who were there. It’s us.”
To tell the story of punk, the conference featured presentations on punk education, zine production, live bands, drag performances, and discussions about punk journalism. The latter panel, moderated by ABC News producer Stephanie Mendez and freelance journalist Candace Hansen, detailed the need for diverse representation of punk in the media.
“It's time for people to learn and know about other bands led by people of color,” Mendez said. “Since we're based here in Los Angeles, most of the punk bands and punk shows are primarily Latin. So why do LA punk bands when people are covering punk rock in general nationally? Hasn't it received any recognition?”
Discussions about punk representation not only emphasize the existence of punks of color, but also the work that queer punks of color do to create safe havens in areas where people of color have to face discrimination. It also focused on initiatives that
Punk journalism is about not just white supremacists in some areas, but amazing and beautiful people who consistently fight against white supremacists by leveraging music, media, and culture to form strong communities. Hansen said this shows that the city is overflowing with people.
The morning panel was followed by a lunchtime performance by The Swords of Fatima, a punk duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Buco Pan Guerra and drummer Nikki Scott. The punk rock veterans' music is driven by cultural awareness, and Pang His Guerra's Filipino heritage shines brightly through the gorgeous Filipino headdresses he wears while performing.
In addition to the cultural awareness spread by Sword of Fatima, Scott and Pan Guerra also create music aimed at educating audiences about political themes such as environmental issues and women's rights.
The overarching theme of advocacy resonated with audience members like attendee Candice Soto, who was particularly interested in the conference's panel discussion on women of color in the punk scene. For Soto, PunkCon dived deeper into the complex layers of the punk genre than what outsiders see on the surface.
“I think this is a really good event and a lot of people think of punk as just stupid stuff or just music, but this event shows how deeply thought out punk is. Soto said. “There are a lot of really smart people out there doing and creating and saying things that really matter.”
Combining academia and punk rock culture, the overall purpose of PunkCon is to explore the culture within the culture, with special emphasis on the bricks laid by the first punks, a minority of individuals who have since been largely erased from music history. It was about showing subtle nuances.
“Women, gays, transgender people, people of color are fundamental and they're not going anywhere,” Rios Hernández said. “Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”