Learn about San Francisco's punk history and underground artists through SF Zine Fest 2026's guest of honor V. Vale and special guests Penelope Houston, Joe Donohoe and Russ Forster as they talk about making noise, getting heard, self-publishing and activism.
Bios
V. Vale
While working at City Lights Bookstore and witnessing the beginnings of the nascent Punk Rock scene in San Francisco, Vale was motivated to document the movement in a way he felt the “Hippie” scene had not been. In 1977, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti funded V. Vale's Search & Destroy punk rock tabloid (which morphed into the RE/Search series in 1980).Vale continues dispersing countercultural ideas through publications, media, and personal appearances. He often sets up and vends his 48-year publishing output around town at events and music shows.
Connect: V. Vale - Website
Penelope Houston
As a teenager, in 1977, Penelope moved from Seattle to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Quickly her career in visual arts was side-tracked by the formation of the critically acclaimed proto-punk band, the Avengers. Since then, she has performed over 1,000 shows with the Avengers and her award-winning solo band throughout the USA and Europe. Venues include CBGB’s, The Whiskey a Go Go, Winterland Ballroom, as well as LA MOCA, SFMOMA and the De Young Museum. She has released thirteen albums on Warner Brothers and other independent labels with a musical career well-documented in publications from Newsweek to Slash. Despite this detour, visual art has always been anchored in her mind and her return to two-dimensional imagery presents a seasoned world view. In 2025, she self-published her first chapbook "early days: A conversation about art, punk and otherness" featuring a 20-page essay and ten drawings. A follow-up chapbook is in the works.
Connect: Penelope Houston - Website
Joe Donohoe
Joe Donohoe is the publisher of Specious Species Culture zine/magazine. He is a former intern with Maximum Rock and Roll, Filth Tabloid editor/journalist and currently an AIDS nurse. He has been a volunteer docent on Alcatraz, a community activist and volunteer and, for sixteen years, was a San Francisco taxi driver. In 2012, he received a Kathy Acker Award for Avant Garde editing. Species, an ongoing project, features interviews and articles with movers, shakers and subversives in the worlds of art and activism. He has just published his memoir of driving a cab while working through nursing school: Get in the Cab.
Connect: Joe Donohoe - Website
Russ Forster
RUSS FORSTER (aka F.R. "Russ" Forster) has been editor/publisher for the wily 8-Track Mind Magazine since 1990. Started on a kind of personal dare with the help of several other Chicago-Area 8-track tape/player/culture enthusiasts, the magazine blew through 3 printings of its initial issue (cryptically numbered #69) and became a perfect example of a cult 1990s fanzine, popular enough to spawn a feature film (1995's So Wrong They're Right) and features in the like of Time Magazine and Rolling Stone. Now on issue #106, the magazine comes out bi-annually (or so) and delves into far deeper cultural topics than its name would suggest.
Connect: Russ Forster - Website
Creative Arts
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LGBTQIA+ Interest
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For more resources, the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center is the gateway to the Library’s broader collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area.