Run Amok: Asian Americans in Hardcore Punk

Three Asian American-led East Coast hardcore punk bands—No Model, Material Support, and Dog Breath—join forces for an epic showcase. The name of the evening, “Run Amok,” intentionally refers to “Amok Syndrome,” a behavioral pattern formerly once recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as a “culture-bound syndrome”—born out of the European misdiagnosis of Asian and Indigenous peoples’ spirit of defiance in the face of colonization. Lyrically, these groups create music that addresses generational trauma, racism, war, social justice, and liberation in service of opening a conversation about the state of the punk scene and the use of the genre to assert fully empowered Asian American narratives rooted in anti-colonial resistance. Their work embraces the struggle of every person raging against oppression and inequality, both at home and abroad.