A Punkhouse in the Deep South | Book Tour

October 6, 2021, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Alabama Contemporary Art Center

301 Conti Street

Mobile, Alabama

Join us in the 3rd Floor Terrace Room on October 6th at 6pm as authors Aaron Cometbus and Scott Satterwhite discuss their new book, “A Punkhouse in the Deep South; The Oral History of 309”. Books will be available for purchase onsite.

Aaron Cometbus has been publishing Cometbus magazine since 1981. He is the editor of the oral histories Back to the Land and The Dead End, and the author of seven novels. He earned a gold record using his teeth as a percussion instrument.

Scott Satterwhite is a historian, educator, and journalist. His work has appeared in Florida Historical Quarterly, Hurricane Review, INWeekly, and Maximum Rocknroll. He is the author of several poetry chapbooks and edits the zine Mylxine. Satterwhite teaches Writing and Literature at the University of West Florida.

THE PUNKHOUSE:

309 N. 6th Avenue became a punkhouse in the late 1990’s. Arguably the oldest continuously inhabited Punk House in the south, 309 and its residents played a role in the American Punk subculture for decades. Over the years, internationally renowned photographers, painters, writers, activists, and musicians have lived in 309. Long-standing local businesses and non-profit organizations rose out of the creative fires of 309.

In 2016, the non-profit, 309 Punk Project was a collective founded to raise awareness about its history through curatorial practice and programming efforts and to raise funds towards the purchase and renovation of the house.

The house was officially procured in 2019 and was to open its doors as a venue, community arts center, a Punk Archive and an Artist in Residence Program in August 2020, yet due to COVID-19 we are postponing that celebration opening until it is safe to do so.

“This book celebrates the punks who do the grunt work to build places where they can conspire to make a better way of life. It is an essential contribution to the history of music, counterculture, and cities.” —James Tracy, coauthor of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times

“A Punkhouse in the Deep South is a ray of light from a completely unexpected direction: a lucid, humble, sweet-natured account of building a small DIY utopia that would continue to flourish for more than 25 years in ostensibly hostile terrain. Its success may not be replicable, but that it happened at all is cause for wonder.” —Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York