Thursday, September 10, 10:30am - 11:15am (Panel)

¡Todas! Means All!: The past, present, and futures of Todas Las Edades/All-Ages spaces in Latinxs communities 

• “Ephemeral Forums Enduring Oppositional Communities, Jorge Leal (USC, The Rock Archivo LÁ)
• Community Engagement and Intergenerational Belonging in DIY ‘All-Ages’ Spaces, Susana Sepulveda (U of Arizona)
• Punk and Intergenerational Collaboration in Southeast L.A., Audrey Silvestre (UCLA)

Moderator: Michelle Habell-Pallán (U of Washington, Seattle)

Panel Description

All Ages spaces have been an enduring feature in punk rock youth cultures. Yet, the conception of the all ages site have much more expansive, inclusive, and also transgressive implications in communities of color. This panel will examine the genealogies of the All Ages both as physical and collective spaces that draw on herstories of inclusion, visibility, collectivity, and the intergenerational organizing done by Latinx and youth of color to create, sustain, and expand All Ages as spatial and collective spaces.

Jorge N. Leal argues that the merging of the D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) ethos and Mexico City’s “Hoyos Funkys,” created Los Angeles’ “Ephemeral Forums,” improvised All Ages and politically defiant venues created by Latinx youth in the 1990s. Dr. Leal will discuss how the “ephemeral forums,” created in the Rock Angelino, Raza punk, and skacore scenes are critically necessary in the present as Latinx communities face threats of gentrification, displacement, and further dehumanization by current nativists federal policies.

Susana Sepulveda will discuss how The Smell, the last all-ages and DIY music venue in Los Angeles, continues to be a pivotal and generative site for identity formation. As an All Ages space, The Smell is essential in fostering intergenerational youth cultures in the form of weekly gigs and the annual Riot Grrrl Carnival. This is a feminist punk festival, wherein Sepulveda has been a participant, organizer and performer. Sepulveda will also offer how All Ages venues, perpetually threatened by gentrification can endure and allow us to imagine broader conceptions of intergenerational community engagement and accessibility. Punk Rock and All Ages communities inform the praxis Chicas Rockeras Southeast Los Angeles (CRSELA)–– a rock camp for girls and queer youth.

Audrey Silvestre examines how the CRSELA organizers, known as “Las Comadres,” first met in All Ages spaces that were still exclusionary due to the homophobia and heteropatriarchy present in punk spaces. As queer and feminist punks, Silvestre will discuss the generative labor that “Las Comadres” have done to create intergenerational collective spaces for South East L.A. young girls and LGBTQ youth to counter gentrification threats and environmental racism.

Dr. Michelle Habell-Pallán will serve as the panel moderator as we collectively connect the past of the All Ages spaces and concepts with the present of All Ages spaces in Latinx communities, and envision the possible futures of all ages physical, ideological sites in communities of color.