Kathleen Hanna Biography

Kathleen Hanna was born in Portland, Oregon on November 12, 1968. Kathleen became interested in feminist literature and thought at a young age, which aided her in much of her songwriting with Bikini Kill, the successful Riot Grrrl movement. Hanna sang with Le Tigre after the breakup of Bikini Kill. Musician and advocate for women's rights. Kathleen Hanna was born on November 12, 1968 in Portland, Oregon; when she was three years old, her family relocated to Calverton, Maryland. Her father changed jobs frequently, causing the family to relocate—first to Laurel, then to Bethesda, Maryland, before returning to Portland, where Hanna finished high school. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom who also volunteered with local churches to help victims of domestic violence. Hanna was inspired to become a feminist at a young age by Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and the feminist publication Ms. magazine. My mother was a housewife who was not considered a feminist, and when Ms. magazine came out, we were amazingly inspired by it, Hanna recalled. I used to cut images out of it and make posters that said things like, "Girls can do anything," and stuff like that, and my mom... took me to the Solidarity Day thing, and this was the first time I had ever been in a massive crowd of female yelling, and it really made me want to do it forever. Hanna later recalled that during her high school years in Portland, she had three obsessions: 1) going to shows (punk and reggae); 2) smoking weed; and 3) drinking alcohol. Yes, I was a teen lush/burn-out who was constantly suspended or placed in special 'get off drugs' classes at school. Hanna became pregnant at the age of 15 and decided to have an abortion, which she describes as a life-changing event that shaped her worldview. In an interview with Salon magazine, Hanna stated bluntly, "Having an abortion was one of the best things I ever did." It was one of the first things I did on my own; I worked at McDonald's, saved up the money, and went ahead with it. I'm very pro-choice because I wouldn't be here talking to you right now if I'd had a child at the age of 15. Hanna attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, after graduating from high school in 1986, where she studied photography. To pay for her education, she worked a work-study job in the darkroom and briefly as a stripper. Hanna and several friends founded Reko Muse, a women's art gallery in downtown Olympia, in 1988, while still in college. Local bands frequently performed at the gallery, and Hanna and her two co-founders formed Amy Carter, a feminist punk rock band named after President Jimmy Carter's daughter. She was initially drawn to spoken word poetry as an artistic medium for expressing her feminist views, but after a conversation with feminist writer Kathy Acker, she shifted her focus to music. When Acker asked Hanna why she did performance poetry, she said, "Because I felt like I'd never been heard and I had a lot to say." Acker's response: Then why do spoken word—no one goes to spoken word shows! You should start playing in a band.

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