Brownstein is a guitarist in the group Sleater-Kinney, originally formed with guitarist Corin Tucker and eventually drummer Janet Weiss in the 1990s in Olympia, WA. Inspired by the feminist punk movement known as Riot Grrrl, Brownstein and Sleater-Kinney explore both personal and political topics, especially traditional gender roles and expectations. Like most musicians, Brownstein began her career as a fan with a longing to be part of a cohesive group and to be seen. She describes with insight and self-deprecating humor how her childhood in a family that was essentially uneasy with itself--her mother struggled with disordered eating and her father with his sexual orientation--led her to look outside herself at first for a sense of identity and belonging, performing to get attention. Eventually, over years of writing, performing, touring, managing the interpersonal dynamics of a band, and even, after over ten years and seven albums together, breaking up this band that had come to feel like her refuge and true home, Brownstein's performance becomes an expression of her complete and true self. She says, "I've always felt unclaimed. This is the story of the ways I created a territory, something more than just an archipelago of identities, something that could steady me, somewhere that I belonged." Sleater-Kinney reunited in 2014, after a six-year hiatus.
What do you think? Maybe you've never been (or wanted to be) in a punk band, one that music critic Greil Marcus called "the best rock band in the world" . . . but can you identify with Brownstein's quest for a sense of a cohesive identity, one that merges the inner experience of the dynamic, multifaceted self with the outer performance of the self we share in our family and professional lives? What is your passion in life? When did you discover it, and how did it help you to find and understand your place in the world? Was it a smooth process, or, like Brownstein, did your sense of self and belonging in the world evolve with uncertainty and sometimes even feelings of being lost or in despair?
Often who we become is strongly influenced by our time and place in the world. How did the Pacific Northwest of the 1990s help to shape Brownstein's search for self and the sound and lyrics of Sleater-Kinney? Are you surprised that Brownstein is still being asked what it feels like to be a woman in a band? That Spin magazine was more interested in her romantic relationship with Corin Tucker than in the music itself?
Brownstein is also a writer and performer in the television show Portlandia, a gently satirical portrayal of Portland, OR, and hipster culture. Do you see any connections in content or style between Sleater-Kinney, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, and Portlandia?
Watch Brownstein, Tucker, and Weiss perform Modern Girl, the song from which Brownstein drew the title of her memoir. How do you interpret the song?
We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, November 1, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, November 17, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.
