09/12/2009 Through 12/06/2009

Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk
Museum

San Francisco was the center of a vibrant and exciting punk scene in the late 1970s, rivaling Los Angeles and New York. In 1977, photographer Ruby Ray began documenting the punk scene in the city for the seminal punk magazine Search and Destroy. This exhibition features 45 black and white photographic portraits and live music photographs of original punk innovators by the San Francisco-based photographer. Original punk rock 'zines, flyers, posters and ephemera from 1977 to 1981 along with additional articles and ephemera from the Library's Art, Music and Recreation Center Collection and from the Little Magazine Collection, Book Arts and Special Collections also will be on view, sharing the rich historical roots of punk rock from the center of the San Francisco artistic movement. The photographs represent some of San Francisco's contribution to the international punk movement. The message is unabashed individualism, creativity, do-it-yourself activism and black humor. Bands such as The Avengers, the Dead Kennedys, the Dils, Crime, Sleepers, the Mutants and others are represented, placing them within the historic context as an important part of San Francisco's counter-cultural history, as innovative for its time as the beat and hippie movements were. Time: Monday and Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm, Tuesday-Thursday 9:00am-8:00pm, Friday 12:00pm-6:00pm, Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm

(415) 557-4400
URL: sfpl.lib.ca.us