Kathleen Hanna facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kathleen Hanna
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Hanna performing in London, 2016
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| Born | November 12, 1968 Portland, Oregon, U.S.
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| Other names | Julie Ruin |
| Alma mater | The Evergreen State College |
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| Spouse(s) |
Adam Horovitz
(m. 2006) |
| Children | 1 |
| Musical career | |
| Origin | Olympia, Washington |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | Kill Rock Stars |
Kathleen Hanna (born November 12, 1968) is an American singer, musician, and writer. She is known for being a leader in the riot grrrl movement. This was a feminist punk movement that started in the early 1990s.
Kathleen Hanna was the lead singer of the punk band Bikini Kill. Later, she fronted the electronic punk band Le Tigre. Since 2010, she has made music as the Julie Ruin.
In 2009, Hanna shared her old zines (small, self-made magazines), art, photos, videos, and music. These items showed how the Riot Grrrl movement began. They are now kept at the Fales Library at New York University. A movie about Hanna, called The Punk Singer, came out in 2013. It showed her life and career. It also shared her long fight with Lyme disease, an illness caused by tick bites. Hanna is married to Adam Horovitz from the band Beastie Boys.
Contents
About Kathleen Hanna
Early Life and Growing Up (1968–1988)
Kathleen Hanna was born on November 12, 1968, in Portland, Oregon. When she was three, her family moved to Calverton, Maryland. Her family moved several more times as her father changed jobs.
Hanna first became interested in feminism when she was about nine years old. Her mother took her to a rally in Washington, D.C.. There, a famous feminist named Gloria Steinem spoke.
Her interest grew when her mother borrowed a book called The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan from the library. Hanna's father did not approve of their involvement in the women's rights movement. So, they worked quietly on it when Hanna was a child.
After her parents divorced, Hanna moved back to Portland. She went to Lincoln High School. After high school, she moved to Olympia, Washington. She attended The Evergreen State College in the late 1980s. She felt lucky to go to college because her parents had not.
While at Evergreen, Hanna worked with photographer Aaron Baush-Greene. They created a photo exhibit. It showed issues that Hanna cared about after volunteering for SafePlace, an organization that helps people affected by domestic violence. However, school officials took the photos down. This act of censorship led Hanna to her "first step into activism." She created Reko Muse, an independent feminist art gallery. She started it with her friends Heidi Arbogast and Tammy Rae Carland.
Hanna began performing spoken word pieces. These performances talked about sexism (unfair treatment based on gender) and violence against women. She later decided to focus on music instead. This happened after a talk with one of her favorite writers, Kathy Acker. Hanna remembered Acker asking her why writing was important. Hanna said it was because she felt like no one listened to her and she had a lot to say. Acker then told her, "Then why are you doing spoken word—no one goes to spoken word shows! You should get in a band."
After this, Hanna formed a band called Amy Carter with Arbogast and Carland. They performed before art exhibitions.
Music Career and Bands (1989–Present)
Bikini Kill Years (1989–1999)
Kathleen Hanna later started another band called Viva Knievel. They toured the United States for two months before breaking up. In 1990, Hanna returned to Olympia. She started working with Tobi Vail, a student and drummer. Hanna had seen Vail's band, the Go Team, perform. She also admired Vail's fanzine called Jigsaw.
In October 1990, Hanna and Vail joined with Billy Karren and bassist Kathi Wilcox. They formed Bikini Kill. This band quickly became a big part of the Olympia, Washington music scene in the early 1990s. One of their main goals was to encourage more women to join the punk music scene, which was mostly men.
Bikini Kill's first release was an EP (a short album) called Bikini Kill. It was produced by Ian MacKaye of Fugazi. Bikini Kill then toured the UK. They recorded a split album with a UK band called Huggy Bear. A documentary called It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill in the UK was made about this tour.
When they returned to the U.S., the band worked with Joan Jett. She produced their single "New Radio/Rebel Girl". Hanna also started writing songs with Jett for Jett's new album.
Bikini Kill released their first two EPs on CD in 1993. Their full album, Reject All American, came out in 1996. In 1998, Kill Rock Stars released Bikini Kill: The Singles. This was a collection of their songs from singles and other albums. Bikini Kill broke up in mid-1998. They ended on good terms.
Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin (2000–Present)
After Bikini Kill broke up, Hanna started a solo project called Julie Ruin. She created the entire album in her bedroom using a drum machine. One album was released under this name. It was partly inspired by the ideas of feminist writer Julia Kristeva.
Hanna explained her idea for the project:
Girls' bedrooms sometimes can be this space of real creativity. The problem is that these bedrooms are all cut off from each other. I wanted the Julie Ruin record to sound like a girl from her bedroom made this record but then didn't just throw it away or it wasn't just in her diary but she took it out and shared it with people.
While in Portland, Oregon, Hanna began working with her friend Johanna Fateman. They planned a live show for Julie Ruin. This led them to briefly form a band called the Troublemakers. This band ended when Fateman moved to New York City for art school.
Hanna soon moved to New York City too. With filmmaker Sadie Benning, they started a new band called Le Tigre. This band had a more electronic sound, like what Hanna had started with Julie Ruin. Hanna called it "Punk Feminist Electronic genre."
Le Tigre recorded for the Mr. Lady Records label. Their first album was self-titled and included songs like "Hot Topic" and "Deceptacon." Sadie Benning then left the band. JD Samson joined for their second album, Feminist Sweepstakes.
Mr. Lady Records closed, so the group moved to Universal Records. They released This Island in 2004. Hanna left the band in 2005 because she became ill. She was later diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease. This is a serious illness that can affect many parts of the body.
During her time off, Hanna volunteered as a band coach for the Willie Mae Rock and Roll Camp for Girls. She also taught an art class at NYU in 2007. In 2010, Hanna was a DJ at the Museum of Modern Art.
Also in 2010, Hanna announced she was bringing back her 1997 project, Julie Ruin. She turned it into a full band called the Julie Ruin. Kenny Mellman and Kathi Wilcox joined her. They planned to create a new album. The band played their first show in New York City. They performed songs from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, plus one new song.
From 2010 to 2013, director Sini Anderson made a movie about Kathleen Hanna called The Punk Singer. It showed her work from Bikini Kill to the Julie Ruin. The movie first showed at SXSW in 2013. In June 2013, the Julie Ruin released their first single, "Oh Come On." Their album, Run Fast, came out in September 2013, and the band went on tour.
The band had to cancel their tour from May to September 2014 because Hanna's Lyme disease got worse. She has since recovered and started performing again. The Julie Ruin's second album, Hit Reset, was released in July 2016.
Activism and Impact
Kathleen Hanna's strong belief in feminism has always shaped her work. She became an important voice for third-wave feminism and the Riot Grrrl movement in 1991. In the summer of 1991, Bikini Kill was in Washington, D.C. There, Hanna started working with Allison Wolfe, Molly Neuman, and Jen Smith from the band Bratmobile. They created a zine called Riot grrrl. This zine encouraged young women to support feminism and to be equally involved in the punk rock scene.
Hanna explained how the zine started:
We wanted to start a magazine, and Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman from the band Bratmobile had started a little fanzine called riot grrrl and we were writing little things for it. I'd always wanted to start a big magazine with really cool, smart writing in it, and I wanted to see if the other punk girls in D.C. that I was meeting were interested in that. So I called a meeting and found a space for it, and it just turned into this sort of consciousness-raising thing. I realized really quickly that a magazine wasn't the way to go. People wanted to be having shows, and teaching each other how to play music, and writing fanzines, so that started happening. It got some press attention, and girls in other places would be like "I wanna do that. I wanna start one of those."
The zines offered advice on how to stay safe at concerts. They also explored political ideas and helped create a group for punk feminist women. The Bikini Kill Zine, which began in 1991, came from this idea. It also aimed to present "feminist issues through a punk rock lens." By Issue Two, the Riot Grrrl Manifesto was created. It urged women to challenge what society expected of them. It also called for women to form groups to discuss important issues freely. Hanna never planned to be the main spokesperson for Riot Grrrl. However, she hoped it would give a voice to issues important to women everywhere.
Her feminist ideas are also clear in her song lyrics. In an interview, it was said that "Hanna's lyrics were about girls who did and wore what they wanted, despite what society expected." Hanna said, "It doesn't mean you're not a feminist because you expose your legs." She focused on the idea that women should be able to express themselves however they want, without being criticized. Her performances often showed these ideas.
Hanna wrote a piece called "Gen X Survivor: From Riot Grrrl Rock Star to Feminist Artist." It was included in the 2003 book Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium. The riot grrrl music style, which Hanna was central to, is seen as a historical moment for empowering women. The movie The Punk Singer credits Hanna with shaping many ideas of third-wave feminism.
In 2009, the Fales Library at New York University created a Riot Grrrl Collection. It focuses on how the Riot Grrrl movement first started. It has many zines, art pieces, photos, videos, music, and journals. Some of Hanna's solo work and zines she made with Bikini Kill are included. The Bikini Kill archive is also available online.
In a 2014 interview, Hanna said she supported marriage equality. This means she believes everyone should have the right to marry, regardless of who they love. She also mentioned meeting teenagers on tour with Le Tigre. These teens told her they had started LGBT groups and gay/straight alliances in their high schools. She said, "Hearing that made me feel so hopeful for the future."
In 2018, Hanna started "Tees 4 Togo." This project sells t-shirts with drawings by Hanna's friends and artists. All the money from the sales goes to Peace Sisters, a non-profit group. This group helps pay for school tuition for girls in Dapaong, Togo. One $40 shirt can fund an entire school year for a student.
Personal Life
In 2006, Kathleen Hanna married Adam Horovitz from the Beastie Boys. In 2024, Hanna and Horovitz were living in Pasadena, California, with their ten-year-year-old son.
Hanna suffered from Lyme disease for six years before doctors correctly diagnosed it. The illness forced her to take a three-month treatment break in 2014. This led to canceling live performances with her band, the Julie Ruin. In 2013, she shared that Horovitz "took care of me throughout the whole thing." By June 2015, she said she was feeling much better.
Music Releases
Kathleen Hanna has been part of many music projects. Here are some of the main ones:
Bikini Kill
- Revolution Girl Style Now! (1991)
- Bikini Kill EP (1991)
- Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (1993)
- Reject All American (1996)
Julie Ruin
- Julie Ruin (1998)
The Julie Ruin
- Run Fast (2013)
- Hit Reset (2016)
Le Tigre
- Le Tigre (1999)
- Feminist Sweepstakes (2001)
- This Island (2004)
See also
In Spanish: Kathleen Hanna para niños
