C.L.I.T. Fest. Promotes Women in Punk

By Maneater Staff

Published Feb. 27, 2007

Let's face it, the clit is hard to find. And so is No Coast, an "infoshop" that is raising money for "C.L.I.T. Fest." But like the clit, No Coast and punk are good — no, really good — when you find them. The fundraiser Friday night raised money for Combating Latent Inequality Together Fest, which will take place this summer in Virginia. Honestly, I think Friday night's fundraiser might be best summed up by the tracklist of the album released by Optimus Crime, which is a local punk band that played on Friday and will also play at the fest this summer. The tracklist is: 1. Bike Curious? 2. Crust Speech the Musical 3. Capitol Punishment 4. Converse, and we don't mean the shoe 5. The implications of patriarchal violence and the results therein upon all genders. 6. War + $ = BFF So allow me to recap. Egalitarian political agenda, animosity directed at authority, lots of black clothing and more than anything else, a sense of humor. And that's not a bad microcosm for the whole thing, really. Six bands played at the event with donations accepted for the aforementioned C.L.I.T. Fest, where punk bands featuring women will play to support the abolition of sexism in the scene. No Coast is described by the collective of people paying the rent as an "infoshop." Laura Kurtz, a founding member of the loose-knit group of 30 or so, explained that the building's two rooms are used as "a venue and radical library". The former is not just for bands — Kurtz described past events including art shows and a burlesque. As for the library, it is arranged into categories such as "poetry" and "fictitious works." The adjective "radical" might imply something insidious, but that's hardly the connotation here. The focus is on (unabashedly leftist) ideas. Nicole Pizzato, a member of the collective, articulates the goal of the library. "We're not trying to win converts, we're just trying to open minds," she said. No Coast is open to the public every Thursday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. One of the few restrictions for the venue is on drugs and alcohol — neither is allowed. Pizzato says the decision to keep No Coast substance-free was in an effort to make it "a safe space for people of all ages." And though the crowd Friday was overwhelmingly of the late teens/early 20s variety, there were a few outliers. Tom Riordan, who is 41 and an acupuncturist, found out about the benefit from myspace.com. He came with Dale Elsberry, a 53-year-old banker, for an evening of "do it yourself" punk music. Riordan had been here before, most recently for a rap and poetry night. K.C. Oden is touring the country making a documentary about women in punk. "I know so many women that are incredible and contribute to the community," she said. Oden got involved in this particular scene because "It's me. I'm punk. It's what I do." I got there early before any of the bands had begun to play. Instead a boom box pounded out Peaches while an assortment of No Coast regulars and a few guests milled around the infoshop, talking, laughing, dancing and hula hooping. The second act was the noise band Ataraxic Ataxia, and they "played" for no more than a couple of minutes, experimenting with sound, no beat, no melody and no real notes. It is a sound with a niche audience, difficult to understand and often ignored as meaningless noise. The instruments and voice went silent and the assembled audience sat or stood quietly looking on. "That's it," said band member Dominick Dufner, kneeling in front of a small electric mixer facing away from the crowd. It is difficult to say, given a random audience of the residents of Columbia, what the typical response to this would be. This is not a random audience, though, and the band was greeted with raucous, genuine applause. Pizzatro, the only other member, laughed when I asked about how she felt about the performance, pointing out that the audience seemed to be accepting. She started putting her violin in its case, saying, "Well yeah. They tend to be."