Anonymous Girls

Although at this point the enigmatic Anonymous Girls co-op amounts to little more than a manifesto, a Web site, a few friends, and an e-mail address, it's precisely this sort of initiative that sparks forward motion. The A-Girls take the position that women artists, musicians, writers, and poets are undervalued in Boston, and that venues for the display of art and music are in short supply. "The meaning behind the name," reads a message on their ass-kicking Web site, "is that unless there's some kind of kick in the ass to push us into the forefront, we're as anonymous as anything else. We plan on being a sort of kick in the ass: a kick in the ass for the Boston area, for all those people who feel they have to move to other cities to see stuff happen. A kick in the ass to get girl art exposed. A kick in the ass to push down anyone who says `It can't be done!' "

It's true that alternative and independent venues have had a rocky history in Boston of late. The Bad Girrls Studio attempted to stage poetry, music, and gallery events under one roof in Jamaica Plain but was closed down after a litany of complications including fire-code and liquor-license citations and an unsupportive landlord. But it was a happening place for a while, full of Mass Art grads and busy young artists and performers, and it proved that there's an audience for new, young, exuberant voices.

It's fitting that the Anonymous Girls' first event includes Dougher, a veteran of the Northwest scene that spawned labels like K Records and Kill Rock Stars and riot grrrl itself. She's played with groups including the Lookers, the Crabs, and Cadallaca (with Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker); her acclaimed second album, Walls Ablaze, was released last year. She's also an academic with a PhD in comparative literature, an educator who's taught Greek and Roman lit, and the author, with artist Nikki McClure, of Sent Out on the Tracks They Built: Sinophobia in Olympia, 1886, a tract on racism and railroad building in Washington state. In short, she's a keen example of the kind of enlightened activist/artist that riot grrrl helped to spawn.

The Anonymous Girls showcase also includes performances by Boston's the Kitty Kill, the Mass Art Women's Spoken Word Poetry Group, indie-poppers the Operators, a baton-twirling performance artist, and a bushel of artists, poets, and writers. All of whom will perhaps be a little less anonymous by day's end.