AUTHOR RICH CROSS and editor Erin Yanke discuss history, politics, subcultures, DIY creativity – and their work on the forthcoming Poison Girls book and CD boxset – with Max Freedman of The Creative Independent platform in a new interview published today.
The Creative Independent is run ad-free by Kickstarter to promote the creative work of select projects seeking crowdfunding through the Kickstarter model.
Recalling the time that he first met Poison Girls, at the Exeter gig of the “Total Exposure” tour in October 1981, Cross says:
They set aside about an hour of their time to be interviewed by three kids, and they talked about feminism, anarchism, anti-nuclear marches, self-belief, and the myth that rebellion and youth are somehow correlated in the way that, as you get older, you have to stop rebelling. It was the most extraordinary conversation I’d ever had with an adult. That’s not me historicizing that event. We felt, all three of us, that we were having an extraordinary conversation with a group of astute political and creative talents who were completely prepared to sit down and talk to us as people worth talking to. That was my point of entry with them. They were, of course, amazing on stage that night.
Describing how work on the Poison Girls book first got underway, Yanke explains:
We’re all passionate about it, so we just jumped in. We’re all really good at what we do at this point in our lives. It was pretty clear. I don’t know, it just kind of happened. You just sort of take the chance and it works out.
The way that Rich approached the writing and graphics, you really don’t have to know anything about the time or place that [Poison Girls] were in before you get this book, because it’s all in there. Not just the story of the band and the graphics and art processes that they were doing, but the political realms they were into.
Stressing how much the design of the book has been indivisible from the writing process, Cross notes:
What’s helped hugely is that, from really early on, we were sharing drafts of things that I had written for comment and… Normally, in a book, you write the thing, and then you give it to the designer, and the design work begins. But because this was a full-color, large-format book and we knew that the visuals would be so important to the success of it, early on, Alec [Dunn, graphic designer] was sharing his designs, and we were immediately in collaboration. It wasn’t like Erin or Alec were waiting for me.
The Kickstarter campaign to pump-prime the funding of both the Poison Girls book and the CD boxset runs until 18 October 2025 – and still needs to attract sufficient backers.
Max Freedman. 2025. ‘On doing what it is you need to do’. The Creative Independent, 8 October. https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/editor-slash-podcaster-erin-yanke-and-writer-rich-cross-on-doing-what-it-is-you-need-to-do/
The Story of Poison Girls – Book and Box Set. Kickstarter campaign. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww3/poisongirls
The Hippies Now Wear Black 