Luisa Rath-John + Ilka Erren Pardiñas (Goethe-Institut)

“Sometimes it’s actually quite okay to let go of this control … and to trust in the process and to trust in the people that you’re working with.”

Jessica Schwartz speaks with Goethe-Institut Los Angeles director Luisa Rath-John and Ilka Erren Pardiñas about the making of Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, a transatlantic collaborative project exploring punk’s continuing relationships to subculture, protest, and self-determination through locally rooted programs across the United States and Mexico.

The conversation moves across the project’s transatlantic structure: Berlin band CAVA’s tour through the United States and Mexico, different regional approaches to punk history and contemporary practice, DIY as a connective principle, multilingual exchange, and the challenge of recognizing punk’s history without falling into what Jessica calls a “nostalgia trap.” Luisa and Ilka describe the deliberate effort to bring younger artists, women, queer communities, and contemporary creative practices into a project concerned not simply with where punk has been, but with what punk can mean now.

Turning to Los Angeles and Tequila Mockingbird’s Punk Museum, Luisa and Ilka reflect on what the institution itself learned through the collaboration. As objects and contributors continued to arrive during installation, a planned exhibition became more fluid and community-built: walls filled through collective participation, and institutional expectations around advance planning and curatorial control gave way to trust in Tequila’s process and the people who brought the museum into being. The conversation closes by considering the relationships, collaborations, and possibilities that might continue beyond Punk@50 itself.

Luisa Rath-John is Director of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. She joined the Goethe-Institut in 2017 and previously served as Regional Director for Cultural Programming at the Goethe-Institut Prague before taking up her Los Angeles directorship in 2024. Growing up in East Germany, she encountered punk as part of the youth culture around her and describes her connection to punk as personal.

Ilka Erren Pardiñas is a Los Angeles–based publicist, music-industry professional, and founder of the independent publicity firm Fly PR. Her work spans music and entertainment, books and publishing, tour promotion, community organizations and events, and industry mentoring and consulting. For Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, she brings more than three decades of music-industry experience and her longstanding involvement in punk to the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles project.

Recorded September 2026.

Links + References:

Main Alle gegenAlles. Punk@50 project page

Goethe on Demand — Gegenüber - Alle gegen Alles: Punk@50

Punk@50 Everyone against everything - Gegenüber - Goethe-Institut

Neighborhood Interpretive Center – entire project plus short info on Survive, Thrive or Die: LA Punk and The Poor Kids on LSD Goethe-Institut USA | Los Angeles

Tequila Mockingbird's Punk Museum

German Currents Film Festival

IG: Goethe Institut LA

Credits:

Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.

Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio-synced transcript.

Transcript:

Audio-synced transcript

Theme Music:

Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.

Related:

Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.

About Punkast:

Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.

Connect with Punkast:

Spotify

Instagram: punkastucla

Email: punkastucla@gmail.com

Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(93)

Alliance (Apache) (Apache Core) with Kristy Martinez

“It doesn't matter where you're from, like you can still be a part of our quote-unquote alliance, you know?”Closing Punkast's guest-hosted series celebrating Indigenous creativity and Native American ...

6 Nov 1h 35min

Josh Andujo (Gabrielino Tongva) (SGV Ska Punk) with Kristy Martinez

“Few shows I've been to, like in East LA Boyle Heights, same thing. You have a taqueria right there. It could be somebody's tía or tío making food for the community. They're not charging, but, like, y...

30 Okt 34min

Gabe Colhoff (Northern Cheyenne · Blackfeet) (Pow Wow Punk Rock) with Kristy Martinez

“If someone in the sweat goes down, you pick them up. Well, then I'd go to these punk shows ... you're shoulder to shoulder with your people.”“So us walking into clubs with like hats and braids and st...

23 Okt 54min

Viki Eagle (Sicangu Lakota) (Rez Metal) with Kristy Martinez (Guest Host)

“And she wore this Iron Maiden T-shirt and she wore these Navajo moccasins. And I was like, wow, that's like the coolest picture to this day that I think I've ever taken.”In recognition of Indigenous ...

16 Okt 1h 13min

"Women in Punk" Part 2 (Punk@50)

“Because it was a do-it-yourself thing where we just rejected the norm and did our own thing.” In Part 2 of the Women in Punk panel, recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles as part of Alle ge...

9 Okt 44min

"Women in Punk" Part 1 (Punk@50)

“It changed everything. All sorts of different art came out of it—the people that made the flyers, the people that wrote the fanzines, not just the bands.”Recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Ange...

2 Okt 45min

Tequila Mockingbird (Punk@50)

“For me, it’s always going to be about making sure that our legacies are honored and protected.”Tequila Mockingbird joins Jessica Schwartz for a conversation about bringing her Punk Museum into the Go...

25 Sep 22min