Photo: The Teen Idles l-r: Nathan Strejcek, Jeff Nelson, Ian MacKaye, Geordie Grindle 18th Street, Adams Morgan, 1/25–26/80
No less than Plato first wrote the words, “A true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention,” acknowledging the fundamental human drive to solve problems. As recent history attests, conditions of lack have provided the most fertile grounds for originality, ingenuity, and innovation.
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Consider Washington, D.C. circa 1979. The nation’s capital had not yet recovered from the riots of 1968, which broke out following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For six days, the riots raged in response to the horrific living conditions for the predominantly African American population, with Dr. King’s murder acting as the tipping point.
HR, Hard Art Gallery, 9/15/79
Chocolate City was emblematic of the country’s ills, its citizens victims of legal tactics that left black unemployed, living in segregated housing systems, and subject to police brutality. When Dr. King was killed, it lit the fuse for a wave of civil unrest that swept across 110 cities in the nation experiencing similar problems. Washington was hit hard, and the result was 12 dead, more than 1,000 injured, some 6,100 arrested, and $25 million in property damages.
The riots devastated Washington’s economy. To make matters worse, the Nixon White House implemented a policy of “benign neglect,” effectively cutting off federal funding for basic services, leaving cities including Washington to fend for it’s self. All that could afford to leave fled for the suburbs causing property values to tank and crime rates to increase. This is where our story begins.
Charlie Danbury, Valley Green Housing Complex, 9/9/79
The punk scene, which began on the streets of New York City, soon traveled south. It arrived in Washington in the late 1970s, taking form in bands like Bad Brains, Trenchmouth, Teen Idles, the Untouchables, and the Slickee Boys. It found a home in spaces like the Valley Green Housing Complex, Hard Art Gallery, and Madams Organ Artist’s Cooperative. It was here that photographer Lucian Perkins took photographs that have been compiled in Hard Art, DC 1979 (Akashic Books).
Hard Art, DC 1979 is organized into four chapters, each documenting specific shows at each venue, illustrated by Perkins’ photographs and narrated by musician Alec MacKaye. The pairing of images and texts works beautifully, creating a rhythm that transforms the book into a personal album of historic import, one of the great stories of teenage rebellion through culture and art.
HR, Madams Organ, 1/25–26/80
This is the edge, reminding us of one of the great necessities of youth: the need to reinvent for the sake of truth. The trappings of adulthood, impressed upon us through school, hold little appeal to those who cultivate integrity above all. Hard Art, DC 1979 stands as a testament to this need, and the way in which we create the world anew.
As MacKaye writes, “I was fourteen and hated art, specially art-speak and most of all theory. By the time we found it, Madams Organ had run the course of dialogue—from art to philosophy, to political philosophy. It was offering volatile haven to creative impulse and outburst, as well as fostering revolutionary idea-makers. Marxists in the meetings and armed motorcycle gangs in the kitchen. A place where freedom and menace were served on the same plate. Art for them had become a concept that reached beyond canvas and paper and even conversation. It was action. Action that pushed and pulled at the same time. More than just witness, people were invited and even expected to participate in the rebellion. What was on the other wise of rebellion was up for grabs.”
HR, Valley Green Housing Complex, 9/9/79
All photos: Hard Art, DC 1979, copyright 2013 by Lucian Perkins, used with permission of Akashic Books
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
