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Riot Woman with Tae Won Yu of Kicking Giant
Manage episode 288160433 series 2899551
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This episode features musician, artist, and illustrator Tae Won Yu, of the band Kicking Giant. Tae was deeply involved in and influenced by the early Riot Grrrl and do-it-yourself scene in New York, Washington DC, and Olympia, Washington, where he lived for about a decade throughout the 1990s. Tae, and his music, art, and commitment to creating community and connection have long been an inspiration to me.
In this conversation Tae thoughtfully shares his unique experience with and understanding of Riot Grrrl, including how he first met Molly Neuman and Allison Wolfe from the band Bratmobile after reading about their zine Girl Germs in Sassy Magazine. We talk about the power of community, self-expression, and the empowering feeling of creating your own scene, identity, and movement. He describes participating in a moment that has been cited as one of Riot Grrrl’s inspirational turning points: Girl Night, featuring all women-front bands, at the International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia in 1991.
He also discusses how the generation of artists who lived in Olympia before him helped inspire Riot Grrrl and feminist art in the Pacific Northwest and showed him how to build a life as an artist. Those artists include Calvin Johnson and Candice Peterson of K Records, Nikki McClure, Stella Marrs, Slim Moon of Kill Rock Stars, Jean Smith of Mecca Normal, and Lois Maffeo.
Tae’s reflections are a beautiful tribute to the compassionate encouragement that existed in the early 1990s scene in Olympia and an example of creating a life for yourself as an artist and outsider.
You can find the re-issued Kicking Giant record, This Being the Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993, at Drawing Room Records. If you want to hear more about the early Riot Grrrl scene, Tae is also featured on the podcast Girl Germs, which focuses on Bratmobile’s first album of the same name.
Follow Tae on Instagram on his personal account @Taewonyu and his incredible archive of photos from the Olympia scene at @summer_guitars. This episode features the song “Half Lie” by Taleen Kali.
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