Raechel Anne Jolie is a writer, feminist professor, punk-encultured queer femme anarchist, ex-academic, and forest witch living in Northeast, Ohio. Her writing focuses primarily on sex, gender, class, media, and social movements. Her memoir, “Rust Belt Femme” (Belt, 2020), was the winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award in LGBTQ Nonfiction, an NPR Favorite Book of 2020, and a runner-up for the Heartland Bookseller’s Award.
Adam Gnade spent years traveling the US, living in various American cities before going back-to-the-land in rural Kansas in 2010. Originally from San Diego, his writing reflects the places he came from and the places he’s gone. He takes his readers through the Western American experience, through the rural Heartland to the wastelands of desert cities. His latest book, “Your Friends Will Carry You Home,” was released in January by Three One G and Bread & Roses Press.
Having gone the independent publishing route with their respective works, both Jolie and Gnade are able to exercise their unique, punk-leaning voices in ways that bigger presses may otherwise inhibit. And, during uncertain and often dangerous moments, independent voices are essential.
“One of the first things an authoritarian regime does once given power is shut down oppositional media and silence dissenting opinions,” Gnade said in an email. “The more that happens and the more people in the arts and in the press are punished for using their First Amendment rights, the more there will be a slide toward the middle in public discourse, art, and at least performative ethical alignment. Now is the time to speak from the heart with as much courage as you’ve got, and in most cases it’s independent media that’s going to let you do that. During fascism, it’s always the underground that keeps hope alive and helps people do their work.”
By that same token, using memoir as her main narrative device, Jolie writes for people who will feel seen in what she writes — often discourse surrounding feminism, sexual violence, and economic disenfranchisement through the lens of popular culture and how it shapes and helps interpret lived experiences.
“Gender and sexuality… those things are so clearly, specifically under attack right now. It’s obviously a really difficult time for most of us to be alive,” Jolie said. “I really believe in the value of sharing personal stories as a way to create change, even if that just means making other people feel less alone.”
Her current book project analyzes the state of the feminist movement when it comes to topics of attacks on sexuality, gender identity, reproductive rights, and more.
With this upcoming reading, Gnade and Jolie are bringing the voices of the resistance to Blind Rage, an independent record shop.
“I became a punk and a feminist in these real life DIY spaces and record stores,” Jolie said. “I have really cared about those places because they helped me gain political consciousness. They helped me find a real life community. And those communities have been imperfect, sure, but they’ve given me such a sense of purpose and identity for so long. Independent spaces are so necessary for surviving this moment, fighting alienation and that loneliness.”
“In an increasingly corporatized world, places Blind Rage are more and more important. They’re real places, run by actual humans,” Gnade said. “Books like mine and independent art in general is at home in shops like these… I cannot stress their power and vitality.”
Both authors will be reading from previously published works.
Although Raechel Anne Jolie and Adam Gnade have never met, their writing is kindred — radical, reflective, and rooted in resistance.
As indie presses reclaim space, independent authors, writers, musicians, and cultural shakers continue to push back, too, keeping the underground voices alive.
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: An evening with Raechel Anne Jolie and Adam Gnade
When: 6 p.m., June 7
Where: Blind Rage Records, 740 Watervliet Ave.
Cost: Free
About the Author