This long-lost end-of-the-century dance track is nothing less than a reading list of feminist and LGBT cultural and counter-cultural icons. A chorus of female voices chants noteworthy names to a hypnotic beat and the message to those who were still living at that time was clear and unequivocal: “Don’t you stop / I can’t live if you stop”.
A lot of them you may not recognise, so here’s a quick tour with some links for you to follow as an entry point to discover some of these interesting and diverse artists, musicians, writers, activists and thinkers.
Dorothy Allison – Award-winning American writer whose works explore themes of lesbianism, feminism and sexual abuse.
Eleanor Antin – Performance artist, film-maker and feminist most famous for assuming the persona of tragic African-American ballerina Eleanora Antinova.
James Baldwin – Author of Giovanni’s Room (1956), recognised as a classic of gay literature
Justin Bond – Transgender artist, actor and cabaret performer.
The Butchies – Lesbian indie band and label-mates of Le Tigre.
Tammy Rae Carland – Photographer and fanzine publisher turned professor, Tammy Rae Carland co-founded Le Tigre’s record label, Mr Lady.
Cibo Matto – Japanese girl group best known for the single Sugar Water (1996) and its video, directed by Michel Gondry.
Laura Cottingham – Visual artist and critic; author of the How many ‘bad’ feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Angela Davis – Political activist and author of Women, Race and Class (1981); instrumental in the rise of the US Civil Rights movement and also the revolutionary Black Panther Party.
Vaginal Crème Davis – Legendary New York “terrorist drag” art-punk performer and founder of rock band Black Fag.
Vivienne Dick – Irish feminist and gender politics filmmaker who helped define the No Wave experimental film movement with short films Guerillere Talks and She Had Her Gun All Ready.
Hazel Dickens – Bluegrass singer-songwriter and advocate for workers’ rights.
Diane Dimassa – Cartoonist and creator of Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist.
Julie Doucet – Cartoonist and author of the candid and intimate comic series My New York Diary.
Cecilia Dougherty – Film artist whose work explores themes of identity and lesbianism in popular culture.
Hanin Elias – Syrian German industrial/techno artist and erstwhile member of Berlin anti-Fascist digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot.
VALIE EXPORT – Austrian video and performance artist known for the provocative series Action Pants: Genital Panic in which EXPORT photographed herself wearing crotchless trousers and holding a machine-gun.
Leslie Feinberg – Butch lesbian and transgender activist who attempted to popularise the neutral pronouns she/zie and her/hir and whose last wordsw were reportedly “Remember me as a revolutionary communist”.
Aretha Franklin – Soul and gospel singing superstar most famous for the hits Respect and Think.
Alice Gerard – Peace activist who has worked to expose the institutionalised mistreatment of cadets in the US military.
Tami Hart – Queer singer /songwriter and Mr Lady labelmate of Le Tigre.
Bridget Irish – Queer performance artist from Olympia, Washington, USA, whose work breaks down the boundary between artist and audience.
Joan Jett – Eighties rock and pop star and founder member of girl band The Runaways.
Billie Jean King – Influential spokesperson for gender equality following a hugely successful tennis career in which she won a record 20 titles at Wimbledon.
Yayoi Kusama – Contemporary Japanese artist, the “princess of polka dots”, creator of Infinity Rooms combining mirrors and LED lights that create a sense of endless space.
DJ Kuttin Kandi – Founder of the Anomolies hip-hop collective of female DJs and MCs.
Juliana Lueking – Musician and spoken word artist, more recently known for the Youtube series People Are a Trip.
Mr. Lady – Lesbian-feminist record label which released Hot Topic.
Shirley Muldowney – US racing driver and self-styled First Lady of Drag Racing.
Hot Topic Redux by Canadian artist Kirsten McCrea (click image to visit her website)
Eileen Myles – Transgender poet and writer.
The Need – American queercore band from Portland, Oregon, whose debut album was released by Quercore label Chainsaw Records.
Lorraine O’Grady – Award-winning New York video and performance artist and feminist writer whose 1992 work on black female identity, Olympia’s Maid, was highly influential.
Yoko Ono – Provocative Japanese conceptual artist best known for Cut Piece, in which audience members were invited to cut off pieces of her clothing, and of course for her “bed-ins for peace” with her husband John Lennon.
Cathy Opie – Award-winning fine art photographer who came to prominence with her images of queer communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Ann Peebles – Blues singer best known for the hit I Can’t Stand the Rain.
Gretchen Phillips – Post-punk singer-songwriter, founder of riot Grrrrl band Meat Joy, whose songs are inspired by sexual politics and lesbianism
Carol Rama – Italian contemporary avant-garde artist and pioneer of “queer abstraction” whose work proposed a new concept of human sexuality beyond binary gender confines.
Marlon Riggs – Filmmaker, educator, poet, and gay rights activist whose documentary Tongues Untied intertwined his own experiences with the story of black gay men in contemporary America.
Faith Ringgold – Artist best known for her narrative quilts depicting influential African-American women.
Carolee Schneeman – Avant garde artist known for the 1964 piece Meat Joy in which scantily clad participants interacted with animal flesh.
Mab Segrest – Author of Memoir of a Race Traitor, the story of her experience as a white lesbian activist combating the Far Right in North Carolina.
Nina Simone – Singer and composer whose songs To Be Young, Gifted and Black and I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free formed the soundtrack to the American Civil Rights movement
Cathy Sissler – artist whose film Lullaby for the Almost Falling Woman investigates anti-corporate sabotage.
Ariel Skrag – Lesbian cartoonist who told her own life story in a series of graphic novels, beginning with Awkward in 1999, which was later adapted into a teen sitcom by MTV.
Sleater-Kinney – Nineties post-riot grrrl rock band from Washington state whose first two albums were released by the queercore label Chainsaw Records.
The Slits – Feminist Seventies punk rock band best known for the track Typical Girls from their album Cut.
Gayatri Spivak – Indian feminist literary critic who defined the phenomenon of strategic essentialism – the gathering-together of diverse minorities with a common, short-term political goal.
Gertrude Stein – 20th Century modernist poet, highly influential in the world of art and literature, although seldom read today.
Billy Tipton – Mid-20th Century jazz bandleader who was born female and lived his entire adult life as a man, his secret only revealed after his death in 1989.
Ut – New York female “No Wave” trio formed in 1978.
Urvashi Vaid – Indian-American LGBT rights activist, author of Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics (2012).
Krystal Wakem – Artist whose drawing of a tiger paw is featured in the artwork for Le Tigre’s album Feminist Sweepstakes; an article by Hillary Chute in the book Singing for Themselves: Essays on Women in Popular Music says she was the niece of the band’s label owner.
Kara Walker– Contemporary artist whose series of life-size paper silhouettes told the horrifying story of American slavery.
Laurie Weeks – Writer and performer, not to be confused with the Australian rugby international, and author of the lesbian coming of age novella Zipper Mouth.
David Wojnarowicz – American artist who controversially scattered the ashes of his partner on the grounds of The White House in protest over the US government’s inaction over the AIDS crisis.
Mia X – rapper whose 1997 album Unlady Like was a Billboard Top 40 hit.
Melissa York – drummer from The Butchies.
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