Kathleen Hanna Transforms Trauma Into Comedic Triumph With Brontez Purnell

When I was a child growing up in the 1980s, the most common thing I heard about feminists was that they were ugly, man-hating, sex-phobic shrews with no sense of humor.

Kathleen Hanna has long stood as a glaring repudiation of that lazy old stereotype on every level. There wasn’t a lot about riot grrrl that was comedic, but from the moment the now-55-year-old arrived in the public eye, hers was always a biting, sarcastic wit with a healthy underbelly of goofiness. For the last 20 years, though, it would appear the Bikini Kill/Le Tigre/Julie Ruin frontwoman has only been getting more hilarious. (That much is evident in the ridiculous social media videos Hanna has recently been posting to promote the release of her new autobiography, Rebel Girl.)

That said, even avid followers of the singer were treated to a side-splitting surprise Tuesday night in San Francisco, when Hanna sat down in conversation with Oakland musician and author Brontez Purnell, as part of the City Arts & Lectures series.

The way these conversational events so often go is that only one person at a time is allowed to be unfiltered and unhinged onstage. The joy of seeing Hanna and Purnell in action together is that neither one of them is willing or able to play the “straight man” role. (Pun intended.) The pair have also been friends for many years, having first exchanged mail back when Purnell was a 15-year-old Bikini Kill fan who sent Hanna a selfie he took on a disposable camera. To say these two have a good rapport at this point is a gross understatement.

Every member of the Sydney Goldstein Theater audience benefitted from that chemistry, treated to a magnificent zig-zag of subject matters, occasionally landing on the audience at a dizzying — and very funny — pace. Here are just some of the very strange things that came up in the course of Hanna and Purnell’s conversation:

• The fact that Hanna’s mom refers to vaginas as “front bottoms” and to actual rear ends as “back bottoms”
• The fact that Hanna once tried to get a role in a terrible Less Than Zero musical, even though she had literally just started Le Tigre
• Purnell’s repeated assertion that the future of punk rock lies in DJing
• Hanna’s onstage cover of “Harden My Heart” by Quarterflash, performed in the style of the musical Oklahoma
• Purnell and Hanna realizing in real time that they both spent their youths lusting after the same member of obscure Portland band Dead Moon
• The pride Hanna feels about sharing a birthday (and birth hospital) with 1990s ice skating icon Tonya Harding
• The fact that both Hanna and Purnell still obsess about folk tales in which major characters are rescued by insects (Purnell’s is Cupid and Psyche, Hanna’s is Pinocchio)
• The news that Hanna’s second cousin was an Oregon drag legend known as Darcelle XV — and that she’s currently making a documentary about them
• Purnell’s opinion that every tour Iggy Pop performs from here on out should just be referred to as “The Jim Crow Revival Fest”
• The revelation that the 10-year-old son Hanna shares with husband Ad-Rock (of the Beastie Boys) is a fan of “fairy porn” book series A Court of Thorns and Roses — but “at least he’s reading!”

Sure, Hanna and Purnell talked about all manner of serious things too, including the ways both have dealt with and healed from trauma. The two also touched on a “kidnapping” and one violent sexual assault that Hanna removed from the Rebel Girl manuscript when early readers and editors told her it was too dark. (Reader be advised: The book still contains several descriptions of assault.)

The difficulty of financially surviving as an artist also came up — though that, too, got funny. (“I married someone rich,” Hanna smiled without missing a beat, then sang dramatically: “I live off him!”)

Together, Purnell and Hanna delivered a City Arts & Lecture appointment that perfectly encapsulated the subject of the evening: an artist who has always found a way to take the most painful elements of her life and transform them into something engaging and enjoyable and useful. Hanna did that in her bands, she did that in 2013 documentary The Punk Singer, she’s done that in her new book — and she certainly did that last night.

‘Rebel Girl’ by Kathleen Hanna (Ecco) is out now.

Hanna and Brontez Purnell’s conversation from City Arts & Lectures will premiere on KQED, 88.5 FM, on Sept. 1, 2024.