Kathleen Hanna has launched the pre-order for a clothing line, ‘Early Days’.
The limited edition collection is “all about the early days of hip-hop artists in the 80s whose legacy gives us the courage to go after our dreams” and features hip-hop icons including Queen Latifah, Run-DMC and Salt ‘N’ Pepa.
The photos of the clothing line were taken by Janette Beckman, who is revered for her work documenting the burgeoning NYC hip hop scene in the ’80s and ’90s.
The ‘Early Days’ collection pre-order is only available for two weeks and is intending to print based on demand to minimise waste. The project’s aim is to raise $20,000 for Peace Sisters, the non-profit for which Hanna is an ambassador, that supports girls education in Togo, West Africa.
Later this year, the Bikini Kill and Le Tigre singer will be publishing her memoir, titled Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk. The book will be released on May 14, 2024 via the Harper Collins imprint Ecco and is said to detail the life and relationships of the singer, as well as discuss the emergence of the Riot Grrrl movement. Pre-order the book here.
“As Hanna makes clear, being in a ‘girl band’, especially a punk girl band, in those years was not a simple or safe prospect,” reads a description of the book. “Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.”
“But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her—including with her bandmates, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and Johanna Fateman; her friendships with Kurt Cobain and [Minor Threat/Fugazi frontman] Ian MacKaye; and her introduction to Joan Jett— were all a testament to how the punk world could nurture and care for its own”.
“Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its later exclusivity.”
Hanna will also be going on a book tour in the US.
Bikini Kill reunited in 2019 and completed their first UK and European tour in 18 years back in April this year.