Deke Nihilson
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Daniel "Deke" Frontino Elash (born January 2, 1968) is an American
zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...
editor, musician, actor, activist and historian. In 1988, Nihilson and
Tom Jennings Thomas Daniel Jennings (born 1955) is a Los Angeles-based artist and computer programmer, known for his work that led to FidoNet (the first message and file networking bulletin board system, or BBS), and for his work at Phoenix Software on ...
met at the Anarchist Survival Gathering in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. Shortly thereafter they began publishing '' Homocore'' zine out of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. One of the earliest
queercore Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically ...
zines, it followed in the wake of '' J.D.s'' and was instrumental in the expansion of the
queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
scene. The newspaper-style zine not only covered and influenced Bay Area and West Coast punks, it had an international readership. The name "Homocore" came from the pages of ''J.D.s'' and from 1988 to 1991, seven issues were produced. Contributors included musicians and writers such as The Apostles, Steve Abbott,
Donna Dresch Donna Dresch is an American punk rock musician, perhaps best known as founder, guitarist and bass guitarist of Team Dresch. Dresch has been actively involved in the queercore scene since the 1980s, as the creator of the fanzine ''Chainsaw'' and ...
,
Larry Livermore Lawrence Hayes (born October 28, 1947), better known by his stage name Larry Livermore, is an American singer, musician, record producer, and author, best known as the co-founder of Lookout Records. Biography In 1977, Hayes began to attend punk ...
,
Daniel Nicoletta Daniel Nicoletta (born December 23, 1954) is an Italian-American photographer, photojournalist and gay rights activist. Biography Daniel Nicoletta was born in New York City and raised in Utica, New York. In his late teens he left New York to at ...
, and G. B. Jones. At the same time, Nihilson and Jennings set up ''Homocore'' shows where bands such as
Fugazi Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They were noted for their style-transc ...
,
Beat Happening Beat Happening was an American indie pop band formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1982. Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis, and Bret Lunsford have been the band's continual members. Beat Happening were early leaders in the American indie pop and lo-f ...
and MDC played, and did much to popularize the queercore scene on the west coast of the U.S. Nihilson began his own band around this time, called
Comrades In Arms In political contexts, comrade means a fellow party member. The political use was inspired by the French Revolution, after which it grew into a Style (form of address), form of address between socialists and workers. Since the Russian Revolution ...
. One of the earliest queercore bands, they played at ''Homocore'' events and issued one
cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback * Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...
release. Nihilson appears in the film ''
The Yo-Yo Gang G. B. Jones (born 1965) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher of zines. She is best known for producing the queer punk zine ''J.D.s'' and her ''Tom Girls'' drawings. Career Music Jones' musical career began as a young child, s ...
'' by G.B. Jones, released in 1992. He also appeared in the 1991 short film ''Shred Of Sex'' directed by Greta Snider; the scene in which Nihilson masturbates alone on screen achieved cult status on the independent film circuit. Nihilson was also involved with the
Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...
(IWW). On 1 September 1992, Nihilson and other IWW members called a press conference for four workers who had been fired from the gay bar "End Up". They had joined the IWW in the midst of ongoing labor disputes with the bar, prior to their dismissal. During the conference, Nihilson burned the
rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the seven spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. History In the 18th century, American Revolutionary ...
, a gesture designed to refute the supposed unity the flag symbolizes for the gay community, due to class divisions. The event was featured in San Francisco media such as ''
San Francisco Bay Times The ''San Francisco Bay Times'', the first LGBTQ newspaper founded jointly by gay men and women, launched in 1978 and remains one of the largest and oldest LGBTQ newspapers in Northern California. The business includes the 24/7 live-streaming Cas ...
'', '' Bay Guardian'' and ''
Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly LGBT newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published ne ...
''. In their zine ''Homocore'', Nihilson and Jennings worked to confront the homophobia of the punk community as well as the morally compromised, consumerist ethos of the mainstream gay and lesbian community. During the 1990s, Nihilson remained active in IWW as well as
Food Not Bombs Food Not Bombs (FNB) is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, sharing free, usually vegan and vegetarian food with others. The group believes that corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of ...
(FNB). As an organizer for IWW and FNB, he launched a campaign fighting
gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
in San Francisco in the 1990s. The campaign focused on action for the working class, serving a weekly meal for the homeless and protesting for
affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...
. At present, Nihilson is a Marxist-Leninist filmmaker working in
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
. The Deke Nihilson papers, including ephemera from the punk scene, queer music events, and workers' rights protests, are held by the
GLBT Historical Society The GLBT Historical Society (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society) (formerly Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California; San Francisco Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Historical Society) maintains an extensive collection ...
in San Francisco.


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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nihilson, Deke 1968 births Living people Anarcho-punk musicians Industrial Workers of the World members Queercore musicians American LGBTQ musicians