Ponk! - by Marcus Clayton (Paperback)

About the Book

A punk rock anti-memoir told through the eyes of a biracial Afrolatino punk academic.ÆPâONK! follows Moose, an alienated academic and lead guitarist for Pipebomb!, as he navigates through spaces in and out of South East Los Angeles: punk clubs, college classrooms, family gatherings, street protests, and euphoric backyard shows. Oscillating between autofiction, memoir, and lyric, Clayton blurs genres while articulating the layered effects of racism, trauma, immigration, policing, Black hair, performance, and toxic academic language to uncover how one truly becomes an "ally." Borrowing from the spatial lyricism of Claudia Rankine, the genre-bending storytelling of Alexander Chee, and the racial musings of James Baldwin, ÆPâONK!'s narrative takes back punk rock and finds safe space in the mosh pit.

Book Synopsis

A punk rock anti-memoir told through the eyes of a biracial Afrolatino punk academic.

¡PÓNK! follows Moose, an alienated academic and lead guitarist for Pipebomb!, as he navigates through spaces in and out of South East Los Angeles: punk clubs, college classrooms, family gatherings, street protests, and euphoric backyard shows.

Oscillating between autofiction, memoir, and lyric, Clayton blurs genres while articulating the layered effects of racism, trauma, immigration, policing, Black hair, performance, and toxic academic language to uncover how one truly becomes an "ally." Borrowing from the spatial lyricism of Claudia Rankine, the genre-bending storytelling of Alexander Chee, and the racial musings of James Baldwin, ¡PÓNK!'s narrative takes back punk rock and finds safe space in the mosh pit.

Review Quotes

"Powerful . . . Wherever academics and artists work to dismantle the lasting effects of colonization, Marcus can be found nearby, plugging in his guitar and a massive Vox amp adorned with the Costa Rican flag as he prepares to melt the faces of posers and neo-Nazis alike."--A.J. Urquidi, LARB
"¡PÓNK! careens through genres without warning--veering into fiction, poetry, academic critique, and even an opera--as it chases critical and under-examined questions about the punk scene. . . a ride that barrels riotously through a fractured slice of America to find that we are not without a mean of repair."
--Akriti Bhambi, BOMB

"Through genre-bending narratives, Clayton writes with the devastating impact of a meteor crash, demanding a punk sensibility that could (and should) rearrange the world, even while asking you to remain tender. ¡PÓNK! will fling you around like a sweaty body in a mosh pit, its experimental chapters reading like a tracklisting firing fast, one song after another. Clayton's debut is a definitive punk text to smash all others apart and a stunning work of resistance for this exact moment."
--Erin Vachon, The Rumpus

"With its innovative style and profound insights, ¡Pónk! is not just a memoir--it is a must-read for anyone who appreciates raw, unfiltered storytelling."
--Forrest Gaddis, Dying Scene

"On the frontlines, in the pit, at the community college, on stage, across the border, off the grid, and against the cops, ¡PÓNK! slams and wails with you. This book is punk as Prince and Anzaldúa, punk as dandelions and dreadlocks. Marcus Clayton redacts, shapeshifts, and testifies about music, race, education, labor, identity, and love. Get ready for the feedback: "Cacophonous. / Ours. / We fly.""
--Gabrielle Civil

"Moose is stuck with Black cops in his family and rising punk stars in his classes, and Marcus Clayton explores his life with a sharp eye for the alienating absurdities of race, punk, and academia. ¡PÓNK! is funny and heady, warm and biting--required reading if you've ever been told you're too much, or felt like you were not enough."
--Chris L. Terry

"Marcus Clayton's ¡PÓNK! disrupts genre conventions, juxtaposing punk culture with scholarly takes on race and power, mixing in a little bit of love and humanity for some balance. But don't get too comfortable. His words will lift you above the crowd to witness truths from a different perspective. He will force you to interrogate everything you think you know about everything."
--Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera

"With relentless genre-bending dynamism, Marcus Clayton's ¡PÓNK! is a truly astonishing take on the anti-memoir, pushing us to throw out worn-out ideas about race, culture, and geopolitical belonging. Clayton argues there is no easy solution to the matrix of violence and oppressions in which we find ourselves in this life, but punk music can teach us what freedom might look and feel like; how to push back, to shove, as the music roars on--and we must."

--Muriel Leung

About the Author

Marcus Clayton is a multigenre Afrolatino writer from South Gate, CA, with an M.F.A. in Poetry from CSU Long Beach. Currently, he pursues a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, focusing on intersections between Latinx literature, Black literature, Decolonization, and Punk Rock. Through Glass Poetry Press, he has a poetry chapbook, Nurture the Open Wounds. Current and forthcoming publications include Indiana Review, Apogee Journal, Passages North, Black Punk Now!, and The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock.