Gentrifying Punks
By Maya Sapienza
On Saturday, June 27th, over a thousand punk fans invaded the space of approximately three hundred homeless people that live in the encampment on Wood Street under Highway 880 in West Oakland. TinyWorld, a Los Angeles based clothing brand, organized six punk bands to play at the Wood Street encampment with four of the six bands coming from LA. Fans trickled in at 6 PM and did not leave until 3 AM the following morning; the harmful effects that hours of noise, fire, and violent destruction had on the Wood Street homeless community are far-reaching: two cars that served as homes were set on fire, sexual harassment, assault occurred; many tents and trailers were vandalized. With the persistent threat of CalTrans clearing the encampment, the uncontrolled fires give CalTrans reason to evict. The suburban LA punk bands’ attempt to show Oakland the ‘real’ ways of punk was nothing short of a disgusting display of entitlement, white suburban privilege, and heteronomy－ the same characteristics driving gentrification in West Oakland.
“Cob on Wood,” the Wood Street encampment, got its name from the buildings’ building material named cob; it works as a paste and hardens on wooden pallets. A kitchen, outdoor shower, meditation room, and medical room were handmade to serve the homeless on Wood Street. Cob on Wood makes an effort to grow partnerships with different groups in the community; they often allow concerts when the organizers reach out to the residents.
The following Sunday after the unauthorized concert, Oakland residents took to Instagram to express their disgust and disappointment in the comment section under TinyWorld and the bands’ photos of their destruction. TinyWorld quickly dodged accountability by deactivating their comment section and has not released a statement addressing their role in the violence.
In response to the comments, LA punk promoter ‘Dead City Punx’ posted on their 24 hours story: “People are so bitter about missing out on one of the best shows of the year. Sure it got out of hand at some points but good people came out and had a good time, why are y’all so pressed?”
Dead City Punx has a lengthy history showcasing their suburban roots and privilege through the events they have organized. They hosted shows in LA when the Covid-19 pandemic was in full force and hosted a show with 2,000 people near Eco Park in LA. The concert played a role in the abrupt evictions of all residents. Dead City Punx did not protest the evictions nor take accountability for jeopardizing the vulnerable population.
N8NOFACE, another LA band, explained that the concert was discussed with the homeless people beforehand, to which the Cob On Wood Instagram account responded that they had not. SCOWL, the one band at the show with a woman, is the only group to delete the photos of the event. SCOWL publicly apologized and organized a clean-up the following day as well as urged fans to donate to the Cob on Wood GoFundMe. The five other bands continue to proudly display their videos and photos of their invading and pillaging of a protected Oakland community for the sake of their image.
Ironically, the bands claim allegiance to a space that has been historically built by anti-establishment, anarchist, collectivist belief systems, while completely disregarding the safety and security of vulnerable communities. A band that named themselves Section H8 energized a seemingly all-white crowd to burn the homes and belongings of a homeless population that is majority black. This was a clear display of a rampant fetishization and glamorization of poverty, the livelihood of the Cob on Wood residents served as a prop for privileged suburban boys to shoot their “punk” promo videos; the Wood street homeless residents were exploited and dehumanized in the process.
Punk itself has been gentrified. This isn’t the first time its been whitewashed over the last 50 years but as opposed to the gradual transitions that took place in the past, the pandemic has served as a catalyst for a flood of self-serving suburban white guys into the punk network with little to no regard to the humanity of the people that rely on what once was a space of inclusion, unfettered creativity, and community. The supportive system of outcasted punks that found community with each other is disassembled.
Punk’s origins are derived from black culture － hardcore punk was created by a band named the Bad Brains, an all-black band in 1978. The poor, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and other marginalized groups created a safe space away from suffocating white capitalist norms. The punk community relied heavily on a Do-It-Yourself network of marginalized communities to foster artistic freedom and creativity. Punk spaces were historically outlawed because they served as a refuge for the outcasts of society; punk is inherently anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-establishment. However, today’s punk scene consists of a concentration of heteronormative guys from the suburbs that disregard punk’s history of inclusivity and advocacy and do not consider the repercussions of their actions. Instead of railing against oppressive systems, they are perpetuating a pro-capitalist narrative by further exacerbating inequalities between the rich and the poor.
Pale tech guys sporting Sperrys is an outdated mascot for gentrification. Privilege and entitlement are amorphous; gentrification isn’t only the white DePop hipsters or the bourgeoisie of the Oakland hills looking down on West Oakland, the people who celebrate what they perceive as the end of the pandemic also have privilege. The reality is that the trauma of the pandemic cannot be erased for many. The pandemic only widened the gaps in a system that was already failing black people. The white suburban boys may feel pent up from being inside their house for a year, but their suffering is incomparable to the people whose last resort was the spot under the freeway and did not have the privilege of feeling ‘trapped ’inside.