00:00:05.760 - 00:00:13.800

This is Erin Gantz, here at Rock Creek Park Day. It's September 27th, 2025. Do I have permission to record this interview? You do?

00:00:13.840 - 00:00:16.830

Okay. Could you tell me your name? Sure. Teresa Gionis.

00:00:17.640 - 00:00:22.680

All right. And what brings you here today? I'm here for Rock Creek Park day. Perfect.

00:00:22.880 - 00:00:36.240

Let's get into it. So what connects Rock Creek Park and the DC punk scene? Well, I never thought about that question before, but at this event today, I think the common

00:00:36.240 - 00:00:49.000

denominator is probably Fort Reno, which is a National Park Service site. And it's the place that we've had punk concerts for, I don't know, 50 years or something close to

00:00:49.040 - 00:01:01.520

that or 40 years. So I think Fort Reno is in many ways the heart of the DC punk scene, particularly for free concerts in the summer.

00:01:01.720 - 00:01:07.720

And it's part of our— it's part of the Park Service, which is part of Rock Creek. So I think that's the connection. I would say also another

00:01:07.720 - 00:01:23.000

connection would be just, it's a local scene. And many of these musicians grew up within, you know, spitting distance of Rock Creek Park. So when you live super close to a

00:01:23.000 - 00:01:45.040

place like Rock Creek Park it forms part of your identity. So I think many of us who grew up in DC and who live here now— It's always been a fraught place, you know, politically. And it's always been the people here are super aware of, of what's

00:01:45.040 - 00:02:04.200

going on politically and culturally. And that awareness can sometimes bring, um, a lot of frustration. And, and, people go to Rock Creek Park to unplug from that stuff, you know? I mean, that's I don't know.

00:02:04.200 - 00:02:10.040

So that's. What do you think the connection is? Yeah, mainly just Fort Reno, I think for me, yeah, yeah.

00:02:10.440 - 00:02:19.760

I mean, and, you know, Georgetown is right on the— I mean, there's so many neighborhoods that the DC kids grew up in that literally are right there, you know. Yeah.

00:02:19.800 - 00:02:25.360

So can you tell me a little bit about Fort Reno. Like your early memories of Fort Reno? Yeah, yeah.

00:02:25.360 - 00:02:39.960

So Fort Reno is just this piece of land in northwest Washington in between what was Woodrow Wilson High School, which is now Jackson Reed High School. But it was Wilson for, I think 70

00:02:39.960 - 00:02:53.120

years until just a couple years ago became Jackson Reed in between Wilson High School and Alice Deal Middle School. So all the northwest D.C. kids, if you went to public school, that's where you went.

00:02:53.120 - 00:03:04.680

So these were really important places to us. So this land in between these two schools has a rickety old stage on it, and every summer since, I

00:03:04.680 - 00:03:14.920

believe, I don't know how many years it's been, at least since the 70s. I think late 60s. Late 60s, there has been a summer concert series.

00:03:15.120 - 00:03:26.960

So right now, and it's always been twice a week, right now in 2025, it was Monday nights and Thursday nights. Um, and, and that's— And they redid the stage. They've redone the stage.

00:03:26.960 - 00:03:31.800

Yeah. They've redone the stage a few years, but it's still a very simple setup. It's just a wooden stage.

00:03:32.280 - 00:03:44.840

And they bring, they bring in a truck which has a sound system on it, much like this truck. And it's been the same guy doing the sound at least 40 years since I've been going.

00:03:44.840 - 00:04:06.200

And yeah, it's just this incredible free concert series. And for most of that time, it's been punk music. And sometimes you would get bands like Fugazi and there, there would be so many people that you couldn't even— I mean, all you see

00:04:06.240 - 00:04:14.800

is thousands and thousands and thousands of people, just a sea of people all the way back to the school. Right. Or sometimes you get some wonky

00:04:14.880 - 00:04:32.600

jazz fusion, you know, not that talented group. And maybe there's their family there and that's it or something. But it's just a place of gathering every summer for decades. And now, actually my closest friend, who I grew up with, Amanda

00:04:32.600 - 00:04:42.520

MacKaye, she's been running the Fort Reno concert series as a volunteer for at least 25 years. I think she's been in charge of it.

00:04:42.520 - 00:04:57.040

So we still go quite a bit. So you kind of talked about its importance. So what does it mean to you? What does punk rock, I guess outside of like, music? What does it mean to you?

00:04:58.120 - 00:05:07.680

What does punk rock mean to me? Yeah, it obviously sounds like it kind of meant a lot to people outside of just like the aspect of listening to it. Yeah.

00:05:07.800 - 00:05:21.800

Yeah. Well, for me, growing up in Washington, D.C.—So I'm 56 years old. Uh, in from— I was in high school from 1983 to 1987, and that

00:05:21.800 - 00:05:35.960

happened to coincide with probably the peak time in D.C.. Punk. I probably went to, no exaggeration, two or three shows a week the entire time I was in high

00:05:35.960 - 00:05:42.600

school, we didn't go to movies. We didn't go to parties. Like we went to shows, Fort Reno, D.C. Space, 9:30.

00:05:43.760 - 00:05:57.800

There's a ton of churches on 14th Street and 16th Street that doubled as punk venues. Either basements doubled as punk venues. So it was my entire social life.

00:05:57.800 - 00:06:10.460

It was my entire social circle. I was in a punk band for many years, and I mean, we weren't that great, but we we got to open for the greats. In fact, there's a flyer on the side of this truck for a King Face

00:06:10.480 - 00:06:23.680

show, and King Face was the bomb. But we got to open for King Face one day at Fort Reno, and there was a massive crowd. I mean, more people than we would ever dream to play for.

00:06:24.080 - 00:06:37.840

And we did our show, and there was a bolt of lightning somewhere in the background, so I had to tell all of those people, sorry, no King face, because it's going to rain. And that was not a good moment.

00:06:38.520 - 00:06:46.640

You got to see me. But you didn't get to see King Face, so. So it's a great question. And it's a long answer because

00:06:46.680 - 00:07:04.360

it's how do you answer a question like that when it's so essential to who you are? I mean, for most of us, I'd say the punk scene was a place of belonging where we didn't feel it anywhere else, right? Most of us had broken families, or

00:07:04.360 - 00:07:17.360

we were, you know, we didn't have a lot of money, or we just we just felt sort of forgotten, or we were just kind of odder people or, you know, where we were artists? You just felt like an outsider all the time.

00:07:17.720 - 00:07:30.380

And the punk scene was a place where you were embraced and you found your people. This is an interesting question that just popped in my head. But did you guys, like, embrace punk rock stylistically?

00:07:30.380 - 00:07:38.000

Did you dress a certain way? Yeah. Of course. Yeah. I mean, D.C. was unique.

00:07:38.640 - 00:07:46.200

I think first of all, because it was huge. Like, everybody knew about the D.C. punk scene all over the country.

00:07:46.240 - 00:08:01.480

Like, I went to college in Georgia and I met— this is where I met Michael, my husband, and he was very excited when he found out I was from D.C. because he knew the clubs, he knew the bands. He knew—Everybody just knew they were huge, you know, Minor Threat,

00:08:01.480 - 00:08:07.720

Fugazi. These were huge, hugely influential bands. I mean, one of the, the drummer

00:08:07.720 - 00:08:22.600

for Nirvana grew up in D.C. and he became, you know, Dave Grohl and he's now the singer for the Foo Fighters. But I mean, but the influence is really beyond that. But what was your question again? Sorry, I forgot the question.

00:08:22.640 - 00:08:29.360

No, you're good. I appreciate you, you basically have answered all the without me even having to ask you. What was the question? What was the last question you

00:08:29.360 - 00:08:32.920

asked? Oh, did we dress a certain way? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we did.

00:08:32.920 - 00:08:40.720

So I mean, I— Oh what I was going to say. what was unique about D.C., is that a huge part of our identity as D.C. punks, at least the

00:08:40.720 - 00:08:52.610

mainstream D.C. punks, like the Dischord punks, were straight edge. So we didn't drink or smoke or do drugs and and we didn't screw around a lot.

00:08:52.610 - 00:09:01.210

And it was like, clean and vegetarian was really important too. Like, clean, clear minds was a really important part.

00:09:01.250 - 00:09:12.690

Even though we're screaming, you know, on stage and wearing ridiculous clothes. And like, my hair, I dyed my hair so many times, it just would fall out in chunks because you see how dark it is.

00:09:12.690 - 00:09:23.410

I had to bleach it before you could dye it. And so eventually I just had to shave it because it just would fall out in chunks. So yeah, I mean, we did dress like

00:09:23.450 - 00:09:37.850

exactly like you'd see in a made for TV movie, probably in the black clothes and the torn up things. And then we all, we only shopped at the vintage store or the, the goodwill and, yeah, it was fun.

00:09:38.890 - 00:09:46.370

Can you tell me about some of the lyrics. What did the band sing about or why did that resonate with you? They sang a lot.

00:09:46.410 - 00:09:57.930

They sang about being disaffected. Basically. They sang about feeling Outside the margins. They sang about anger at the next generation's up who were screwing

00:09:57.930 - 00:10:03.570

up the planet. They sang about corrupt politicians. They sang about being lonely.

00:10:03.570 - 00:10:15.890

They sang about, just feeling other, you know? I think that was a big, big part of it. I mean, and the anthem. I shouldn't say this because it's

00:10:15.890 - 00:10:30.250

become so cliche now, but the anthem for Straight Edge, I can tell you those lyrics right now, I don't— This is from Minor Threat, who are kind of like the king of all DC punk bands. I think they are the OG DC punk band, and they're fronted by a guy

00:10:30.250 - 00:10:40.010

named Ian MacKaye, who later fronted Fugazi and who later started Dischord Records. And he's really he's been interviewed a zillion times by a zillion people, but he's Ian.

00:10:40.010 - 00:10:51.450

But he was a singer for Minor Threat, and he had a song which I think he regrets now because it's just become so cliche, almost. But it was called Straight Edge. I don't drink, I don't fuck, I

00:10:51.450 - 00:10:58.890

don't. What is it? I don't, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't fuck, at least I can fucking think, I've got the straight edge.

00:11:02.730 - 00:11:18.770

So it was an anthem to sort of, trying to define a way of living that was thoughtful, you know? And in terms of the clothes, like, Ian is really interesting. Ian has worn the same clothes

00:11:19.090 - 00:11:35.490

since I've met him, I think, when I was 11 years old. And he's vegan, right. So never any leather, never any. It's just like loose cotton, probably, you know, made someplace

00:11:35.490 - 00:11:47.370

ethically or whatever. Like the morals are really, really, and the ethics are really, really important. And he defined an entire culture really with these morals and these

00:11:47.370 - 00:12:00.690

ethics because people bought into that and they still do. There's still a ton of straight edge kids in DC. Generations later, you know, it's a pretty cool legacy. What do you think the like—This is just an amazing concept I've never

00:12:00.690 - 00:12:10.770

heard of, like the straight edge of the punk rock scene. What do you think that was in response to? Because I know— That's a great question. I guess, obviously mainstream music gets a lot into drugs and

00:12:10.770 - 00:12:14.770

everything, when you become a celebrity. Yeah. So I think you hit the nail on the head.

00:12:14.810 - 00:12:36.050

I think that the straight edge movement was a response to the mainstream, unthinking, clouded, you know, just obliviate your brain kind of thinking, you know, you need to, you need to be alert and aware of what's going on in

00:12:36.050 - 00:12:46.610

your world to make an impact on your world. You can't just check out. Straight edge is like the opposite of checking out, you know? But a lot of music and musicians

00:12:46.610 - 00:12:55.610

and whatever from the era, that's all it was about, was checking out. So it was kind of almost a reaction to that, I feel like? I don't know, and sometimes it's

00:12:55.610 - 00:13:04.330

just, I think a lot of people did it because this is going to sound shallow. But it was. He made it cool, you know, like maybe other people were making

00:13:04.330 - 00:13:12.490

smoking and drinking and smoking weed and whatever, cool, but he made the opposite cool. Or the movement made the opposite cool.

00:13:13.010 - 00:13:23.170

People do things that are cool, you know? And for me, it was cheaper to, you know, you don't have to be buying alcohol. You're not buying cigarettes.

00:13:23.170 - 00:13:29.690

You're not, you're not buying weed. You're not. I don't know, it was just, you could still feel rebellious and

00:13:29.690 - 00:13:40.450

strong and cool without doing those other things. You know. One last question. Did you guys ever get involved in any sort of protests around DC?

00:13:40.450 - 00:13:45.770

Oh, yeah. All the time. All the time. I'll tell you about one in

00:13:45.770 - 00:13:59.130

particular that really sticks out in my mind. Well, first of all, I'll say like my band, which was called SDS. They were just initials. It was not an acronym, but we

00:13:59.130 - 00:14:15.810

played a lot of benefit shows. So, we were— All the bands were constantly raising money for, you know, all kind of like, charities and whatever, but, one particular, protest I remember going to was

00:14:15.810 - 00:14:31.930

called the Punk Percussion protest. And there were multiple punk percussion protests, in fact. But one I remember really well is that we all went down to Massachusetts Avenue, near DuPont Circle, across the street from the

00:14:31.930 - 00:14:44.330

South African embassy. And this is during apartheid. So this is the 80s, and we brought pots and pans and drums, anything you could bang on.

00:14:45.010 - 00:14:55.770

And we sat outside the South African embassy, and it was an anti-apartheid protest, and there was hundreds and hundreds of us just banging on, on drums, basically on pots and pans.

00:14:55.810 - 00:15:13.010

And we were just, um, we were just letting folks know how fucked up apartheid was. And, I'm not saying we contributed to the end of apartheid, but it did—It was part of a movement where people were slowly growing

00:15:13.450 - 00:15:21.770

sick of it. And it did change, you know? And finally that government was overturned and things got better and Mandela was released and yay! And it's because I banged on a pot

00:15:21.810 - 00:15:31.930

on Massachusetts Avenue. I'm pretty sure that's why. And we would do protests in like— Fugazi would do protests all the time, like in front of the White House and on, you know, next to

00:15:31.930 - 00:15:38.170

the Washington Monument. They had huge—If you ever find the footage, it's incredible. Like they'd play— There's a stage

00:15:38.170 - 00:15:45.970

next to the Washington Monument, and you could not see the end of the people. It was like an inauguration or something like that's how big they were.

00:15:46.010 - 00:15:54.650

That's how many people would come. It was, it was very, very cool time. And it was really, I still feel

00:15:54.650 - 00:16:06.090

lucky to this day to be a part of that era. And it's the reason I stayed in DC and raised my kids in DC because it was that important. Anyway.

00:16:06.130 - 00:16:12.290

That's amazing. Yeah. What was it like in Missouri? You must have gone to shows and stuff in Missouri.

00:16:13.210 - 00:16:21.450

Not I—I'm disappointed to say to you that I didn't know of punk rock, like, um, especially. Not necessarily punk. It doesn't have to be punk.

00:16:23.090 - 00:16:33.250

My parents mostly made me listen to classic rock growing up, so I think the only concert I've ever been to is The Rolling Stones. What? That's not a bad one. No, it's not, but it's very— It is mainstream.

00:16:33.770 - 00:16:40.610

Well, you're in DC now, girl. There's way more shows to see. Is there anything else you'd like to say? No, no. Thank you for listening.