SIBLING RIVALRY PRESS, 2019
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"Don’t miss out on this timely and exciting commentary that flips the script on an antiquated, patriarchal mindset with brilliant, insightful results."
- The Advocate "If you only choose one book of nonfiction for your bookshelf this year, choose this one." - Thomas Simmons for Saint Julian Press Book Review "Like Greil Marcus in Mystery Train . . . Boss Broad is a classic American story that resonates." - Iain Ellis for PopMatters "She busts open the boundaries of content & form to create something poetic, punk rock & profound." - Beth Ward for Arts ATL "A record that shows how far off we are as Americans from where could be if we read more kinds of writers and listened to more teachers." - Jeanne Griggs for Necromancy Never Pays "On vivid display throughout is Volpert’s trademark punk rock aesthetic of blending of high/low cultures; or stubbornly refusing to see the difference: from Susan Sontag to Cheap Trick, Albert Camus to Kurt Cobain, Roland Barthes to Stephen Colbert. Beautifully and brutally honest throughout, there’s little to find fault with in this unruly collection of queer musings. I came away with so many recommendations of reading and listening material that I can recommend it on that score alone." - Jonathan Kemp for QueerGuru |
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In a time when we have so little faith in the healing power of rock 'n' roll, and possibly less in humanity, along comes this inspiring humbling blazing page turner. It's honest. I initially thought, "Oh Greil Marcus from a feminist angle, like Joan Didion.” Then all of a sudden I was on the back of some Jodorowsky-fueled motorcycle checking out Volpert's house, wife, classroom, childhood, and there's a shit ton more. These essays are so life, joy, human affirming I was startled at my reaction. Oh, did I mention this is a book about Bruce? This is a great fucking book.
-Ed Hamell, AKA Hamell on Trial This Springsteen Catechism for Youth; this apostrophe to The Boss, blessed by Pope Colbert; this time-warped documentary fiction; this cacophony of voices disrupting notions of listening, hearing; this queering of Bruce’s lyrics until we become champions of intersectional justice; this fandom that exposes us all—destabilizes our fantasies of the real and shows us what, in ritual worship, destroys us every day. Read this, say three Hail Marys, and loan Boss Broad to a friend who knows that suffering which is sacred. Amen. -Kass Fleisher, author of Talking Out of School Fleeing toward another America, as Genet says, I love Boss Broad! It grapples with the question of where we have been and where we place ourselves for a strategic future in music, in poems, and in prose strumming along our bones. We need Megan Volpert for the strength of never surrendering, for knowing how we outnumber the fascists. -CA Conrad, author of While Standing in Line for Death |
Touching on subjects such as the through-line of “coolness” and the righteousness of Patti Smith, Boss Broad reflects on a world shaped by musicians, writers, comedians, philosophers, politicians, and other influencers and icons. Megan Volpert usefully traverses progressive politics, pop culture, and spirituality in a uniquely crafted memoir incorporating brilliantly rewritten Springsteen songs. Boss Broad is full of bold inquiries, sentiments, and proclamations to which you’ll have strong reactions or identifications: “Rock and roll shows are the only place that I feel church with any consistency.” Volpert is a boss broad preaching something fine.
-Mary Ann Naylor, founder of Church of Girl Radio Boss Broad’s cross-genre world of book reviews, pop Americana, and Springsteen song translations slaked thirsts I forgot I had: the quench of reading it restored me. Volpert re-rhythms and re-lyricks anthems of defiance and love with extraordinary language energy. Her wise words brace American pop and political culture with feminism and anti-racism, gender equality, queer style, social justice, and the nobility of teaching the young, while giving full-throttle to a frank and funny sincerity we wish we too could muster in the face of the cynicism that feeds politics and life around us. Reading it, we are in the room with greatness, and it is us and who we are. Boss Broad needs no blurb. It’s that cool: in 'interrogat[ing] the social norms that hold us down,' it celebrates what frees us. -Erin Moure, author of The Elements |
