Resilience as “Hope With Teeth,” via Pussy Riot and “The Chi”

In my recent piece, “The Necessary Precariousness of Hope,” I explore some of what makes hope so difficult and yet so necessary. Hope involves a capacity for being able to bear the unknown and unlikely, as Rebecca Solnit has said– which can be a beautifully expansive and playful experience given the best circumstances, and extraordinarily challenging in the most oppressive circumstances. The topic of hope was slowly rising in my mind when I went to see a band called Pussy Riot, a Russian feminist punk band whose lyrics fight for the rights of women and queer people amidst an oppressive political state.

In all honesty, the only thing I thought I knew about Pussy Riot prior to last week was what I just wrote above. But when I saw they were coming to San Francisco, I jumped on the chance to get tickets. (Bonus points for an early show, home by 10pm!)

The band I saw that evening was not the band I expected, which traditionally consisted of two main members (who have spent time in prison for protesting Putin) and 11 side members. The San Francisco show featured one person with a possibly Russian-accented voice and another person behind a mixer who rarely sang. Both of their faces were covered by colorful woven ski masks. The music was not punk rock as I know it– it was more like fun, dance-y electronic beats. I learned from the vocalist that evening that “anybody can be Pussy Riot.” So I don’t really know who was behind those masks. Apparently, they could have been anybody.

Their message is direct, refreshing, and hard-hitting. The song Bad Apples is a story about corruption and kyriarchy, demanding that we be rid of the “bad apples” running both Russia and the United States. The song Chaika wasn't played, I don't think, but you can read about it here - it’s a direct hit on one of the higher-ups in the Kremlin and exposes both corruption and prison torture, something widely used by both Russia and the United States. In fact, Pussy Riot says in the above link, “Any resemblance to actual events isn’t accidental, but deliberate.”

While soaking up the show, I started thinking about the idea of “hope with teeth.” Hope with a bite to it. The Pussy Riot I saw, whoever they were, offered a performative musical experience with direct, aggressive, and political commentary in a completely exposing and stripped-down way. And yet the dance music that night was so full of hope, exuberance, and fun. It was a dance party amidst video and lyrical messages of corruption, torture, and ultimate state power. There was even a video on screen of Russian policemen dancing to the lyrics “girls and boys, sugary sweets, cops are killing under the clouds,” and another video of the aforementioned "Bad Apples" song: a hand squishing rotten apples, with the lyrics “don’t need those bad apples.” The leaders of both Russia and the United States were held to task. We danced and we were not confused.

I realized afterwards that I had been craving some bite mixed in with my hope. When I wrote my most recent piece, I had been wondering how to incorporate my experience of Pussy Riot and their kind of "hope with teeth." After all, isn’t this the very definition of resilience: A hope that offers something we can hold on to? Resilience is a method, an act, and an experience of embracing the unknown. Whatever we face each day can help us grow in ways we can’t possibly imagine, depending on how we respond to it and whether we do so with consciousness and self-reflection. Resilience is how hope takes shape, and moves from an idea into an active, lived experience.

If you’re looking for examples of resilience, there are innumerable places to find it. It’s in a dance punk show that calls out corruption and our Orwellian reality. It’s a video or a poem that calls out problems, putting a voice to personal and social experience. It’s speaking truth to power and still marching on, even when power doesn’t listen (because others might and may join you). Without spoilers, I’ll just say here: If you want to watch a television series about resilience, check out The Chi and watch to the end. The characters always seem to find their way back to this one thing: That no matter how fucked up the circumstances are that they are being faced with, each person continues to make decisions for themselves about how they are going to be in the world going forward in the face of these circumstances. This is hope with teeth: The ability to bite down, keep going, no matter what; to use your own agency to make choices in your life even amidst unjust circumstances.

That is not to say unjust circumstances should not be addressed! In fact, hope with teeth is just that: An opportunity to act, to call out injustice, and keep fighting back.

Resilience is not letting injustice stop you from finding your power to respond, in whatever way you can, that reclaims your agency. Resilience is a conduit for hope. It is how hope gets channeled, and is as important to human survival as being able to dance, read, love, say “fuck you” to the system, change the system, change YOUR system, and persevere in spite of adversity.