Take Back The Power: Post-election Empowerment Through Punk

(If you’d rather skip my rant, a very punk rock playlist can be found here.)

The day after, there is so much that this election has left me wanting to say. I’ve started and deleted countless social media posts that I’ve chosen to keep myself as to not add to the mania that’s currently taking place. I’ve instead chosen my coping weapons of choice: confiding in my close family and friends, and listening to every god damn punk song that has ever made me feel like I’m more than just a statistic.

This past weekend I was at a punk rock show at a small bar in Central Jersey. As The Interrupters played into the chorus of their most successful hit “Take Back The Power”, I screamed along just like I had in my car a million times before — only this time, it was with hundreds of other people pressed up against me. It was a feeling I’d never experienced at a show, despite how many I’d been to. I started to think about how much I needed this at this particular time. I thought about how even in the state of our country, punk music was bringing people together with a common message. I thought about how in mere days, the evil we were facing would be brought to its knees by so many of these people.

Obviously, I wasn’t entirely right. While the people in the room with me felt that love and unity — a huge amount of the country obviously didn’t. When the guitarist said “There is no room at an Interrupters show for sexism, racism, or homophobia,” I thought, “Duh.” It seemed obvious to me. Everyone cheered, just as any punk crowd I’d ever been in had applauded a similar message. I felt like as Americans, this mentality was the landslide majority.

That’s not the case everywhere, though, and that’s incredibly evident now.

There’s a lot that can be done, and I think we’re all in the process of figuring that out. It’s going to take a lot of endurance, patience, and hope to move forward and handle the inevitable obstacles as they arise.

I’ve created a collection of a handful of punk songs that continue to empower me on a regular basis. Some are political, some are vaguely revolutionary, and some are just downright angsty or silly. I truly hope that some, if not all of these will become songs that you can disappear into during this time of uncertainty and make your own in whatever personal revolution you choose.

PS: for bonus recommended material, please listen to every record that Anti-Flag has ever released. Narrowing it down to two songs was painful.

— Cheska