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JOAN JETT: Justice for Mia Zapata but the fight goes on
from: realchangenews.org
It was a strange coincidence that brought JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS to Seattle's EMP Sky Church on Friday, March 26, the day after Jesus Mezquia was found guilty for the murder of Mia Zapata. Strange because Jett had worked from a distance to find Zapata's killer and give women the power to overcome attackers like him. In 1993, Jett was working with punk band Bikini Kill in Olympia when Zapata, singer for Seattle band The Gits, was raped and killed. Jett became interested in the case and ended up lending her support to Home Alive, a nonprofit self-defense group created in the wake of the murder by local artist-activists Valerie Agnew and Gretta Harley. Jett told Dazed and Confused at the time, "I was amazed... how something so awful could give rise to something so positive."
Jett, along with Bikini Kill front-woman Kathleen Hanna, wrote a song in reference to the Zapata case called "Go Home." Jett filmed a music video of the song in which she plays a woman who gets away from her stalker. The video plugged the Home Alive project and was dedicated to Mia's memory. MTV refused to air the piece, however, claiming it was "too violent."
A couple years later, when the killer's trail had grown cold and police had all but given up, Zapata's family and friends hired a private eye to continue the investigation. Jett and the remaining members of the Gits played a series of shows under the name "Evil Stig" (Gits Live backwards). Though the short-lived musical project had all the rough edges one would expect from an off-the-cuff endeavor, it gave Mia's survivors the emotional and financial lift they needed to pay the detective and carry on in the face of discouragement.
Evidence finally led to Mezquia, a Florida ex-felon who had been living in Seattle close to the scene of the murder in 1993. A nationwide check of DNA evidence of former inmates fingered the 46-year-old fisherman. The late March conviction brings some long-awaited closure to this disturbing case. While the verdict lays to rest a crime that many had despaired of solving, it doesn't answer the broader, more troubling question: are our streets any safer now that Mia Zapata's killer is behind bars?
Jett's engagement at EMP seemed like an opportune occasion to reflect on the state of the women's self-defense and empowerment movement, so Real Change contacted BLACKHEART RECORDS where Jett's manager arranged the interview that follows.
Even non-fans usually recognize Jett's signature tune, "I Love Rock'n'Roll." This rock classic is Billboard's #28 song of all time, and along with her other hits, it has earned Jett a place of honor in the rock pantheon. Though sometimes dismissed as power-chord fluff, her simple song has a radical myth behind it.
After her trailblazing girl-band The RUNAWAYS split up in 1978, Joan was having trouble kick-starting her solo career. She recorded some tunes in London with the Sex Pistols, then came back to Los Angeles and hooked up with songwriter-producer KENNY LAGUNA. She and Laguna went in the studio and recorded her first BLACKHEARTS album, but they couldn't find a major label that wanted it. In desperation they formed their own label and released the album independently in Europe. Brisk sales there soon earned them a deal with Boardwalk Records and, after a year of touring, "I Love Rock'n'Roll" went to #1 on the Billboard charts for eight straight weeks.
Joan has never shirked from this role as a pioneering feminist. As the first woman in rock to start her own record label - with all the financial and artistic independence that brings - she has always preached the message that girls could do anything boys could do (and quite possibly better). As a sex-positive, pro-choice, gender-bending rock headliner, Jett is at the forefront of the culture wars currently raging across America.
More recently she's gotten involved in electoral politics. This winter she and Laguna stumped for Howard Dean, and were with him in Ohio on the night of his legendary whoop. Her support for this nominally anti-war candidate might at first glance seem to contradict her work with U.S. troops abroad, as a regular feature on USO tours for many years. But Laguna, in Seattle with Joan as her keyboardist and back-up singer, explained it to Real Change this way:
"She is strongly anti-war," he says, "but she feels a connection with these kids in the military. When she was touring around the world, lonely for America, those kids were there for her, so she tries to be there for them. She's been under hostile fire more than any other non-combatant. But it breaks her heart when we're bombing people."
Here, then, is Joan in her own words.
Real Change: What are your thoughts about yesterday's verdict?
JOAN JETT: I was amazed that we hit town at the same time. I had heard they caught the suspect. It's unbelievable news. The Seattle musical community had worked so hard to keep the story alive. It's great to see they caught him, so far down the road. It brings some peace, knowing that he was convicted. There's far too much violence against women and people generally, it's pervasive in our society. I try not to be cynical, and find ways that I can help, but sometimes it's hard to find the positive energy. Wherever you look there's always something to do.
RC: Did you know Mia Zapata?
Jett: I knew of Mia, but I never got to meet her. As I was reading about the Zapata situation, and talking to folks in the Seattle music scene, it was frustrating figuring out how to get something done. I could so relate to her: there have been so many times that I was hanging out in some club or coming home from a show.... We're not aware of the danger around us. That's no way to live, with the knowledge that life can be taken so quickly, that it could be any one of us.
RC: What's the bigger picture for gender equality, with the recent attacks against gay marriage and legal encroachments on reproductive rights?
Jett: I'm aware that Congress just passed a law that grants a fetus legal rights. Yet we don't take care of the people that are already here! I don't get the logic - because it isn't logic, it's insanity. Of course, we don't make social change in leaps and bounds; it's usually taken in tiny steps. You have to have a passion for these things, but sometimes I worry that my emotionalism clouds my intellect. For the first time I came out and supported a candidate this year, and I'm learning how important it is to be respectful of all sides in a political dialogue.
RC: What can people do to help change things?
Jett: How do we make lives better for homeless people? Awareness is a big issue - we have to draw attention to the homeless problem, because it's everyone's problem, it's a community problem. We're conditioned not to help others, so I try to break down my own conditioning. I'm aware of the stigma placed on homeless people, and I try to do what I can, even if it's only to make eye contact or offer a smile.
RC: Is there a role for men in ending violence against women?
Jett: Men have a powerful voice, since the violence stems from them. My own reaction is that it's powerful to see men discuss this issue. Men don't speak out much, and I don't get it. They don't realize how much power they'd have on this issue.
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