Girls to the Front

Marcus writes that by 1996, the last Riot Grrrl chapters (in DC and New York) had closed. But in a postscript, she updates us on the current activities of all the girls profiled in the book. They are professors, students, writers, artists, and activists. They are making music and zines, and working with girls, women, and the elderly. One is at work on an oral history of Riot Grrrl; another is involved with a summer rock camp for girls. For these grrrls-turned women, Riot Grrrl wasn't the end of their drive to make a difference in the world — it was the beginning. And so maybe it makes sense to think of it, not as a movement with a defined birth, life, and death, but as a fertile period in American history when a lot of smart, angry young women learned how to make noise. And maybe we should rejoice that despite the supposed end of their supposed movement, they're still making noise today.