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Every Saturday morning, Mariela Georgieva sets her alarm for 5 a.m. to tune into the WERW radio show “GRRRLS TO THE FRONT” from her home in Bulgaria.

“Heyy, just wanted to say that the show was AMAZING, I loved the playlist and waking up at 5 a.m. was totally worth it,” she messaged the show’s host, Syracuse University freshman Maria Antonia Villegas Botero, on Instagram.

For Botero, it’s amazing how “GRRRLS TO THE FRONT” has had such a big reach in the few weeks since her first show on March 12.

“This is a person that I never would have gotten to meet, never would have gotten to reach out to or speak to, and they’re literally waking up at 5 a.m. on Saturdays to just listen to me and listen to cool music,” Botero said. “That really moves me.”

The femme punk show runs every Friday at 11 p.m. on WERW’s website and AM 1670. Botero centers the show around the riot grrrl music, a female-fronted punk scene that started in the ‘90s, and at its core, it is a radical feminist and anti-capitalist version of hardcore music.

Riot grrrl music is female-dominated, and it drew Botero in because it’s a contrast to the overall punk scene, which is primarily controlled by white men. She also likes how the show is a safe space for queer people and allows women and nonbinary people a space to talk about their life experiences.

“These are feelings that all women and all queer people have had since they were young,” she said. “At the end of the day, music is to express this and to express our pain and our anger, and wanting to change things.”

The radio show is named after the book “Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution” by Sara Marcus, which talks about the riot grrrl movement and the feminist ideas it brought forward.

The saying “Girls to the front” comes from Boteros’ favorite band Bikini Kill — led by Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox — who would call female audience members to the front of concerts to create a barrier where women would feel safe from the men who would often harass the shows.

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While the formal riot grrrl scene from the ‘90s may have died out, Boteros’ wants people to know that it still exists. She believes the movement can be resurfaced if the issues that were present in the original movement, such as the exclusion of transgender people and people of color, are fixed.

Through listening to riot grrrl music Botero’s boyfriend, Linus Brooks has seen the problems in punk and grunge music — two genres he plays on his own WERW show, “all our pretty songs,” on Saturday mornings.

Brooks, who is also an SU freshman, helps Botero structure the playlists for her 50-minute set. They also go to the recording of each other’s shows so that they can offer support and suggest things that could be said to listeners.

“So like when we’re talking about those bands, sometimes I’ll be like, “Oh, Toni, there’s this really cool story about (the artist)’ or like she’ll tell me a story when I’m talking about it. And so it’s really cool how our shows can intermingle,” Brooks said.

Botero has also shared her love for riot grrrl with her roommate and SU freshman Vernice Riego, who designed the promotional posters and graphics for the show.

At first, Riego admitted she didn’t understand the appeal of riot grrrl music, but after listening to it more and going to the recordings of the show with Botero and Brooks, she has a better grasp of the movement.

“I totally get it now that I’ve been listening to it a lot more,” Riego said. “She explains like the background behind the songs so it makes it a lot better.”

Riot grrrl bands provide a stronger message than mainstream punk bands, while still staying within the genre, Brooks said. He wants people who listen to the music he plays on “all our pretty songs” to introduce themself to the feminist genre on “GRRRLS TO THE FRONT.”

“It’s a great way to introduce yourself to those topics and to those issues,” Brooks said. “Because if you like that music, you’ll like riot grrrl.”

Published on March 29, 2021 at 8:27 pm

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu