MAPA: WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?

MAPA. Make America Punk Again.

So, what the hell is this all about anyway? Well, if I’m being completely honest, I started MAPA for purely selfish reasons. Ever since I moved out of Providence, going to a punk show has become a chore. I live at least an hour and a half away from most places putting on punk or hardcore shows. That means seeing a band has become a road trip. And let’s face it, I’m not a teenager anymore. Driving two hours home after a show ends at 1 or 2 in the morning is not something I particularly want to do. So now a show might mean a ticket, gas, food, and maybe a hotel room. Shows aren’t five bands for five bucks anymore either. You’re looking at 25 or 30 bucks at the door, maybe more. Add a hotel and suddenly I’m spending close to 200 bucks to stand in a club for a few hours and see a couple of bands. Fuck that. So, I started thinking: Why not bring the shows here? Find some local bands, find a room, put on an affordable show, and get some punks through the door. That was the original idea. And honestly, that is still one of the main goals of MAPA: Put on shows. Bring out the punks. But then the idea started getting bigger.

THERE ARE PUNKS HERE. THEY JUST DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER.

I started realizing that there actually are punks and hardcore people where I live. Some are older, some are younger, some are just discovering the music now. The problem is, I wouldn’t exactly call it a scene. It’s more like a bunch of random people scattered around who don’t know each other, don’t hang out together, and rarely end up in the same place. Why? Because there isn’t much happening. No regular punk shows, no obvious gathering place, no real reason for everybody to come out at the same time. And that got me thinking about how we did things when I was younger. What did we do when there wasn’t a show? We made one. We found bands, sometimes we started bands, we found someplace to play like, basements, backyards, garages. VFW halls, social clubs, anywhere somebody would let us plug in. Then we promoted the shit out of it. People showed up,  people met other people, bands met other bands, friendships happened, a scene started forming. It sounds simple, back then, sometimes it was. Will it be that simple now? Probably not. IT’S NOT 1984

Here’s the reality. It’s 2026, not 1984. Back then punk and hardcore were growing fast. Finding other punks wasn’t always easy, but it was a hell of a lot easier to recognize them. If you saw some kid with a mohawk, combat boots, ripped clothes and a painted leather jacket, there was a pretty good chance you had found another punk. Today? Not necessarily. Punk changed culture. Colored hair, tattoos, piercings, combat boots, ripped clothes, leather jackets and even mohawks became normal. That’s not a bad thing, but it means you can’t just walk through town and identify the local punk scene anymore.

At the same time, we have the internet, social media, streaming, group chats, websites and instant communication. We should be more connected than ever. Somehow, locally, we often aren’t. That’s part of what MAPA is trying to change.

SO, WHAT IS MAPA?

MAPA is a DIY punk and hardcore project. Right now, it’s a website and a small print zine. It’s an attempt to find bands, shows, venues and local scenes. Eventually, it’s about putting on shows and other events. But more than anything, it’s supposed to be a way for people involved in punk and hardcore to find one another. I don’t want MAPA to become some big corporate music site where somebody sitting behind a computer decides what punk is. That would completely miss the point. The people actually living in these scenes should be the ones telling us what is happening. If there’s a great band in your town, tell us. if somebody is putting on basement shows, tell us.

If there’s a weird little VFW hall where hardcore bands play once a month, I want to know about it, if your town has no scene at all and you’re trying to start one, I want to hear that too.

THE MAPA WEBSITE

The MAPA website is basically an online punk zine mixed with a community resource. There are DIY articles, stories, interviews, punk and hardcore history, band profiles, scene reports, show listings, venue information, and whatever else we find worth talking about.

The long-term goal is to have information coming from all over the United States. Not because I’m pretending to know what’s happening in Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, or some tiny town in Iowa. I don’t. You do. That’s the idea. The people who actually live in those places should tell the story.

THE MAPA ZINE

Then there’s the physical zine. Yeah, an actual paper zine. Remember those? The print version is smaller and, at least right now, more local. That’s partly because printing costs money and I’m trying not to go broke producing something I’ll probably hand out for free or close to it.

The zine includes shorter versions of some of the articles on the website, local information, show stuff, DIY ideas, and whatever else fits. The website can go deep. The zine gets into somebody’s hands. Those two things should work together. Maybe somebody picks up a MAPA zine at a show, scans a QR code, finds the website, discovers another band, submits their own scene report, and shows up at the next event. That’s the kind of loop I want to create.

THE SHOWS

This is where I really want MAPA to go. Affordable punk and hardcore shows. Not forty-dollar tickets, not some giant production, not pay-to-play bullshit. I’m talking about finding local bands, finding a room, keeping admission cheap, sharing gear, putting up flyers, and getting people together. Old-school Sunday matinee kind of stuff in VFW halls, pr social clubs. Wherever it works. The goal isn’t to become some giant concert promoter. The goal is to create a place where people can meet, because once people are in the same room, things start happening. That’s how a scene grows.

WHO’S INVOLVED?

This part is easy. Right now? Me and my best friend Amy (Amelia). That’s basically it. We just started this little plan, and right now we’re the ones trying to figure it out. That’s okay. Everything starts somewhere, but if MAPA is going to become what I think it could become, it can’t stay two people, and it definitely can’t just be me telling everyone else what’s going on.

We need people, we need Punks, Hardcore kids, old punks, young punks, bands, photographers, writers, artists, people to help put on shows, people who just go to shows, people who remember what happened forty years ago, and people who know what happened last Saturday night.

WHAT’S THE PURPOSE?

First of all: It’s not about money. There probably isn’t much money in any of this. If we break even, that would be nice. If MAPA eventually makes enough money to pay for the website, print more zines and help fund another show, even better, but that isn’t why I’m doing it. This is about Punk, Hardcore, shows, bands, DIY, and the community that grows around all of it. It’s about getting out of the house and seeing a band, meeting somebody, finding out there’s another show, starting something. making something, supporting somebody else who made something. That’s the part of punk that always mattered most to me. Not just listening to the music. Participating.

THIS ISN’T ABOUT BRINGING BACK 1984

I talk about the old days a lot. That’s because I was there. It’s what I know. MAPA isn’t about recreating 1984. I don't expect some 17-year-old today to dress like I did, listen to exactly the same bands I did, or experience punk the same way I did. They shouldn’t. Every generation should make its own version. What I do think we can bring forward are some of the ideas that worked. DIY, cheap shows, all-ages shows, local bands, small rooms, zines, making your own clothes, making your own music, helping each other, and not waiting for some company to decide you’re worth paying attention to. The tools changed. The idea didn’t.

AND THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN

This is a general call to punks and hardcore people everywhere. I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care if you discovered punk in 1978 or last Tuesday. We want to know what is happening where you live. Send us shows. Send us bands. Tell us about your scene. Tell us if you don’t have a scene. Send stories from the past. Send stories about what’s happening now. Send DIY projects. Photos with a story behind them. Tell us what we missed. Correct us when we get something wrong. You don't have to be a professional writer. Hell, send five paragraphs and some pictures. Give us something to work with! MAPA isn’t here to tell America what punk is. We want punk across America to tell us what it’s doing.

SO, WHAT’S MAPA ALL ABOUT?

It started because I was tired of driving two hours to see a punk show. That was the selfish part. But somewhere along the way, I realized the bigger problem wasn't just that there weren't shows near me. It was that people were disconnected, bands were disconnected from potential audiences, punks were disconnected from other punks, and small scenes were disconnected from other scenes.

People are out there, they just needed better ways to find each other. So, that’s what I want MAPA to bring it all together. Let’s face punk shows bring out punks.  And eventually, something that doesn't belong to me at all, it belongs to everybody who contributes to it. We all work together. We all support each other. We all support the scene. That’s what MAPA is all about. Make America Punk Again.