About

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s an Archive? What’s a Community Archive?

Ar·chive (noun)
/ˈärˌkīv/
a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.

D·I·Y community  ar·chive (noun)
/dee/ ai/ wai/ kə’myōonədē /ˈärˌkīv/
A gathering of special momentos, keepsakes, papers, objects, songs, photos, and stories that a group of people with shared history brings together collectively to tell their own stories, in a way that is free, open, accessible to each other and future generations. D.I.Y.--Do! It! Yourself!–is a creed shared by punk and community archives. No one owns the archive and contributors retain ownership of their words, photos, and items.

Who are we? Where did the idea come from?
We are a collective of people who love punk. Some of us work at the university, some of us grew up in Binghamton and were part of the scene, some of us moved here from punk scenes in other cities, some of us were in Bing punk bands, some of us lived in Bing punk houses, some of us are/were BU students, some have punk shows on WHRW 90.5. But we ALL love punk–music, style, history, art, and ways of living. The idea for the archive came out of that love, as did the “Bing Punk Rock Reunion” we hosted in November 2021. We want to keep that conversation going beyond one night, which is where the D.I.Y. Binghamton Punk Archive comes in.

What’s the university’s role in all this, though?

Hey, Milo went to college–college didn’t come to Milo! The archive is a grassroots effort. We didn’t start it because the university asked us to or because BU suddenly got into punk. Ha!  We started it in our free time to give back to punk and to the city of Binghamton. We donate our labor, the BU Art Museum provides server space to host the archive, and a group on campus called “Material and Visual Worlds” awarded it a small start-up grant so we can keep gathering items and pay non-BU employees for their labor and expertise, because the community’s time matters. But that’s it. It’s “a community resource supported by the university,” but they don’t own it, control it, or shape it. It’s by us all for us all. Use it how you want and share it everywhere!

Contributors

Brianna Salazar-Olaiya (Community Archivist)

Brianna Salazar-Olaiya is a first generation Cuban American. Her musical journey began on the violin in 4th grade. Brianna began performing in the Binghamton Punk scene as a bass player in her band Debaser in 1996. In 1997 she began her first audio internship at Marsland Recording studio and found a passion for audio engineering. After leaving Debaser, Brianna went on to form her first band in which she was the guitarist and principal song writer, The Alcodytes. When the Alcodytes formed Brianna bought her first PA system that she used to run sound for many punk shows in the area. Running sound and playing shows naturally flowed into Brianna writing a zine (Hanging By A Chord) and promoting her own shows including the annual Lourdes Breast Care Center benefit, the B.U.M.P. Fest and being a co-promoter on Femme Fest/Binghamton Ladyfest. While Brianna continued to play in bands she also started a Recording Studio, Black Azul where she recorded artists of all genres and even mentored college interns.  Brianna also played in Plotting Revenge, The Bad News, If Man Is Five and most recently the bilingual hardcore band Talk Hard. If Man Is Five was Brianna’s most successful endeavor spanning from 2002-2010, releasing four albums and one DVD. If Man Is Five began after Brianna met music vocalist/bass player Angela Timon while they were obtaining music performance/music business degrees as classical artists at SUNY Broome and SUNY Oneonta. Brianna is now married with three children; her husband is a Nigerian musician and music is played and enjoyed in their home. Brianna obtained an accounting degree after the birth of her first child and currently underwrites small business loans for a community bank, is a local activist and teaches music lessons out of her home. Brianna’s favorite show was when Anti-Product and Submission Hold played together at the Skate Park in the late 90s

Stephen McKee (Database architect)

Stephen McKee is a Master’s student at Binghamton University in the Art History department. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Art History as well as Art and Design with a concentration in painting. He currently works as an archivist at the Broome County Historical Society.

Jenny Stoever (Co-Founder)

Jenny Stoever is from Riverside, California where she grew up in the 1990s in the 909/951 local ska-punk scene with bands the Voodoo Glow Skulls, the Skeletones, Falling Sickness, and Killing Zoe. Before grad school, she went to UC Riverside and worked as a high school teacher while staying involved in her scene by writing band bios and helping to promote shows by local and touring bands, including Guttermouth, Zeke, the Murder City Devils, and Union 13, who played in her backyard. After moving to Los Angeles for grad school , she interned for LA Magazine and wrote for the very short lived music magazine Pink and the Almighty, where she got to interview Flavor Flav, Antibalas, and The Faint. Jenny has been a professor in the English Department at Binghamton University since 2007, where she draws on all of these facets of herself in the classroom and in her research on race and sound. She has been collecting records since age 5, and currently, she is interviewing women who lived in the Bronx in the 1960s and 70s about their record collections and loving every minute of it. Her fave Binghamton show was seeing Moxiebeat--all the way from Riverside!--with Edochuli, Rat Storm, and Street Feet at the house on Walnut Street in December 2013.

John Lee (Co-Founder)

John Lee is a current WHRW DJ (1999-to present) and former WHRW Pop Music Director ('00-'02). After graduating from Binghamton University, John worked in the music industry doing music marketing for Insound.com and Music Clearance for Props Music Magazine. He returned to Binghamton in 2007 and now works at Binghamton University Library as the Stacks Manager. He grew up riding BMX and skateboarding, and punk music was the soundtrack to his youth and beyond. You can tune in to hear John on WHRW 90.5 or online at whrw.fm from 7-8 am on Tuesdays ("Riddim of Binghamton" reggae show) and Wednesdays ("Dwarf Invasion" punk/post-punk/indie). His favorite show during his time in Bing was Fire Down Below at 123 Fake Street in 2002 (or somewhere around that year).

Claire Kovacs (Co-Founder)

Claire Kovacs is the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Binghamton University Art Museum and curator of the Fall 2021 exhibition "Now Form a Band" A Punk Exhibition in Three Chords. She never feels cool enough to be doing this work, but is grateful to help utilize her role at the university to amplify others' stories. 

Jess Norkus (Designer)

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