’89 domande to Sarah Velk & Kennedy Wright – PUNISHER NYC

Name?
S: Sarah Velk (@sareiously)

K: Kennedy Wright (@ilovegreenday)

How old are you?
S: 28

K: 15

What’s your job?
S: I’m a freelance copywriter.

K: I am a writer for hire in NYC aka I am starving and looking for work always.

What did you study?
S: I studied English Literature and Philosophy in undergrad and I’m pursuing my masters degree in secondary teaching right now.

K: Undergrad English and graduate Creative Writing.

How did you meet?
S: My (ex)boyfriend met Kennedy through friends – he came home one day and told me that he met this “crazy girl” named Kennedy and he saw her try to hit somebody with her car – a whole other story in and of itself. I told him I wanted to hear Kennedy’s side. We met officially IRL at our friend Sammy’s Casual Encountersz reading on the roof of the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

K: TL;DR version – Sarah’s now ex boyfriend told her I was crazy and a slut.

Why did you start Punisher and what do you see happening for the project in the future?
S: We started Punisher because we were feeling really uninspired and disenchanted with the reading circuit in New York, particularly with this sort of ugly preoccupation with accolades, what university people went to, brown leather shoes, and just the general “who’s who” of it all. Back in LA, the “scene” or whatever you wanna call it was prioritizing stage presence, fun, and aesthetics as much as the work (shoutout Car Crash Collective, Factory Made and CE). We wanted to bring that vibe as a challenge to the East Coast intellectual industrial complex, just to fuck with it a little bit and remind people that these things can and do co-exist. In the future, we’d love to create an anthology of work from our readers, perhaps create a site compiling the work read at our events, and host Q+As with some of our fave authors (and big things coming there, stay tuned).

K: What we’ve created is among the crosshairs of an overall cultural shift. The zeitgeist of the literary scene is stepping away from the confines of the podium in front of sat, well-behaved buttoned up nerds, and is traversing into the art world as a whole. Where the art world has traditionally championed music, film, visual arts, and fashion as spaces to foster legendary characters and after parties, literature is now showing its balls as an equal of the sexy avantgarde.

If you had to describe Punisher as a person, what would they be like? Clothes, zodiac sign, fav drink…
S: Beloved, beautiful and tortured. Libra all the way. Mini skirt. No bra. Stilettos in winter and blatant French-tipped open toes in summer. A Corona with lime.

K: Bold. Sagittarius. Fur coat draped over their tiny silk, sequin, or lace outfit beneath it. They’re drinking the cheapest beer on the menu.

Would you like to expand the project somehow? How?
S: Kennedy’s going to learn to DJ and then we’re going to open a club that only serves natural wine and adaptogenic cocktails.

K: The project will organically move onto product extensions the way Coca Cola did. We’re entering our cherry vanilla stage, which should materialize as published anthologies, Q&A’s, I almost said DJ sets but caught myself. Live bands. Punk ones. Indie ones. Marrying literature to other mediums in a way that brings the written works to life.

Why “Punisher” instead of another name?
S: So “punisher” is a Canadian slang term meaning someone, usually a drunk someone, who won’t stop talking your ear off about stuff you don’t care about. It’s a bit cheeky and ironic since we kind of feel like that’s who gets on the mic sometimes, but also it’s meant with love. To be a writer is to be a punisher ultimately.

K: Sarah thinks everything has Canadian origins. The term is universal because there is a “punisher” who exists on every continent and right now there’s a saturation in the tri-state area.

What do you feel is missing from the reading/lecture scene in New York?
S: There is definitely a serious swag deficit. Also, someone to tell the readers five minutes means five minutes.

K: Courage to explore different atmospheres and mediums that bolster the work and strips the audience of limiting emotions. Boldness overall. I’m talking of course about fostering a space where people can get WASTEDDD.

What’s better: a bad text read brilliantly, or a great text read badly?
S: Bad text read brilliantly. For sure. They don’t want you to know real-life charm and charisma actually counts for something in this online-ass world.

K: I don’t have to choose! You can’t make me!

If you were the protagonist of a book, which one would you be?
S: I’d be Isa Epley in Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados. Or at least I have been her.

K: The howling and heavy hearted woman that threatens to steal Bukowski’s soul, leading him to retire from love and stick to hookers.

Since it is one of the few elements that cannot be contaminated by artificial intelligence, do you think the real life of the artist will return to the center of the stage, becoming itself the true work of art?
S: I do. I think the idea of the invisible writer is going away, especially with AI and social media. It’s gonna become part of the gig to show yourself. Like I think letting an audience into your real life as a writer via Substack will eventually be seen as selling out, because our humanity will be all we have left to separate us from the robots, man.

K: No longer contributing to AI discourse. Thank you for your cooperation.

What are your aesthetic references in film, music, literature, and fashion? Do you share them, or do you have to compromise?
S: I feel like we have the movie taste of the age inappropriate stoner boyfriend you had in high school. We love like Step Brothers and Goodfellas. We watch movies together and make them our personality until we get to the next one to hyperfixate on. We listen to different stuff mostly, but we’d say Kennedy is the punk indie darling with old school LA rap influences and Sarah is the country music/Drake apologist who grew up on Tumblr. We’re super influenced by the work of writers like Eve Babitz, Bukowski, Mary Gaitskill, Lorrie Moore, Otessa Moshfegh, Phillip Roth etc.

K: I am unfortunately a “born in the wrong generation” shorty to a fault. I wish to repackage the best stylistic influences of the past to heal the flopping ass culture of the present. Punks, beatniks, latchkey kids, stoners, junkies, even jocks and cheerleaders. The attitudes, fashions, and rituals from these expired subcultures have become such a novelty that they feel brand new.

When you’re designing a flyer or choosing images for Instagram, what makes you think: “yes, this is very Punisher”?
S: Cursive, boobs, long hair, big hair, animal print, juxtaposition, lace, balloons, guns, the 70s, the 60s, fur, Chloe Sevigny, big sunglasses, stilettos, an ethereal glow, warm lighting, smoke, mirrors.

K: Definitely everything Sarah said, but also I’m keen on a man’s chest hair with a gold chain on it and hot girls smoking weed. You might ask well what do these things have to do with literature? It’s poetry personified. Use your imagination.

What kind of spaces make you feel most creative: bedrooms, bars, libraries, streets at night?
S: My own bedroom which is technically my entire apartment. The streets/subway at night, too.

K: I spend a lot of time in my room. I always have. I’ve always had a very personalized bedroom that harbors a lot of creative energy.

Can you tell us something about you that nobody knows or very few people know?
S: I’m hungry as fuck right now.

K: I have a tender, virtuous heart. I also find it very irritating when my phone rings.

Do you think Hegel was right to put music as art at a higher level, or do you think the figurative arts, especially at an emotional level, are on the same level?
S: I agree music is its own thing kind of, but it’s not really about high versus low. Like you can enjoy it without really thinking too much about it. However, I do think it’s concerning and basically a red flag and a sign of profound emotional disturbance or psychotic tendencies if somebody doesn’t really have a taste for music. I don’t really feel that way about being indifferent towards other kinds of art.

K: I don’t wish to compare as all mediums are one and the same to me in some aspects.

Can you give us a definition of art?
S: Probably not.

K: This question always pissed me off growing up because, like, no.

Your favorite style icons?
S: Lana Del Rey, Amy Winehouse, the Olsen twins, Nastassja Kinski, Barbara Streisand, Effy Stonem, Jackie Burkhart, Adriana La Cerva.

K: Jemima Jo Kirke, Chloe Sevigny, Lexee Smith, megsuperstarprincess.

What’s your best talent?
S: She’s being modest. Mine is dancing like nobody’s watching.

K: Writing, I hope! But probably just giving head.

What is your motto?
S: Move it or lose it.

K: Try again tomorrow!

Do you think there exists an objective aesthetic value or you think aesthetic value is just subjective?
S: Depends who’s doing the evaluating. Different strokes for different folks. Some folks just have horrible taste, and thank God, because somebody’s gotta do it.

K: Pass.

When, in your opinion, can you define a person as an artist?
S: When they make certain choices for want of inspiration over experience for its own sake.

K: Pass.

If you could have a super power what would you choose?
S: Same.

K: Invisibility.

Do you think that the relationship between art and drugs is just a cliché?
S: No.

K: This has never crossed my mind/ no.

Who do you think is the best band right now?
S: I like Cigarettes After Sex.

K: The Mainliners but I’m not allowed to say that cuz their girlfriends will get mad.

If you were not in your profession what work would you have wanted to do?
S: Acting.

K: Homesteader/ Stay at home mother/ Interior Designer, I don’t wanna leave the house. But I’m barely even in my own industry so lemme break through before I start daydreaming of an escape!

What do you think people say about you? And about your project?
S: Good stuff? That we’re bringing fresh blood to the NY reading circuit and that we’re awesome and smart. Wrong stuff? Probably that we have too many photographers at our events and Punisher is an excuse to party and is lacking serious academic or literary merit. And to them we say: that’s the point.

K: I’m not sure. I stopped paying attention to what’s being said about me a long time ago 🙂 #healed.

Blur or Oasis?
S: Oasis.

K: Oasis lmao Blur was trying to meme 90’s grunge and got like one good track out of it. And I love Liam Gallagher. He is such an arrogant SOB.

Can you tell us when you think a person is cool and when they are not cool?
S: Cool people know what they like. They have tattoos they think are stupid. They don’t have to be nice, but they have to be kind. They’re funny. You’re not cool if your parents pay your rent every month or if you’re mindlessly contrarian.

K: Iykyk.

If you had to tell a person to fuck off, who would you choose? And why?
S: It’s personal. But if you’re reading this and you think it could be you, it is.

K: Patti Smith. Like we’ve just heard enough from you.

Who’s your favorite artist?
S: Marc Chagall.

K: Norman Rockwell.

If you could choose which historical era to live in, which would you choose?
S: The 60s. I would’ve gotten married, chainsmoked in the house and raised my 3 sons on powdered milk formula for purely selfish reasons until they grew into varsity football players.

K: The late 1970’s/ early 1980’s punk scene in NYC. I would’ve been at CBGB. I would’ve been at The Factory. I don’t belong here.

Are there artists, writers, or musicians you constantly return to for inspiration?
S: Lana, of course. Townes Van Zandt. Vivian Gornick. Lena Dunham. Vonnegut. Amy Winehouse forever.

K: Brett Easton Ellis as inspiration in how to frame the sort of degenerate content matter I deal with, Charles Bukowski on delivery in different formats of writing, writers like Virginia Woolf who defy the structures of written word, cultural pioneers like Lana Del Rey (not kidding, she is, admit it). People who are outwardly grumpy as shit like Bob Dylan, or who lived short lives like David Foster Wallace. And OG punk attitudes, obviously (Darby Crash is one).

If you could have any iconic figure to read at a Punisher night, who would fit the vibe perfectly?
S: An FDNY firefighter.

K: Alexis Neiers.

A song you wish you had written?
S: European Vegas by Mac Demarco.

K: My Own Worst Enemy by Lit.

What’s your dream place to read alone while listening to music, one in your own city, and one anywhere in the world?
S: In Prospect Park by the boathouse on a picnic blanket from Amazon. And in Jeanne-Mance Park in Montreal on a quilt made by my grandmother.

K: The Oval Office.

What’s the topic you are most expert in?
S: Québec language laws and makeup application techniques.

K: Love, addiction, food sensitivities.

Do you have any objects, tools, or habits that are essential for your work?
S: Tension Tamer tea. The notes app. Shareable Google Docs. Writers group chats. YouTube Premium. Perfume. Incense. A paper planner. Taking the subway with my headphones off.

K: Going out into the world alone and paying close attention :-).

Which are your favorite places in your city?
S: I love Kennedy’s house, specifically her basement. It’s a cozy safe space. Seconding iBar. Also my apartment. Also, Shenanigans Bar in Flatbush. Also, Little Poland. Also, Prospect Park. Piccola Strada in the East Village. Kiki’s, duh.

K: We like Eastern European restaurants, dive bars, diners, parks, and each other’s apartments. Special shot out to International Bar, Veselka, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and my living room with Borat on the TV and Kin Euphorics in hand.

Favorite movies?
S: Princess Mononoke, American Hustle, Brokeback Mountain, Silver Linings Playbook, Boogie Nights, Ghost World, Ladybird, Goodfellas.

K: All That Jazz, A Woman Under the Influence, After Hours, Casino.

Favorite directors?
S: Hayao Miyazaki, Sofia Coppola, Paweł Pawlikowski, Wim Wenders, Scorsese.

K: Paul Thomas Anderson, Safdie Bros, Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Leos Carax.

Favorite songs?
S: Ape Shit by Chief Keef. Black Beauty by Lana Del Rey. This Is The Day by The The. Wake Up Alone by Amy Winehouse.

K: Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too by Say Anything, More Human Than Human by White Zombie, She Neva Seen by Mac Dre, Every 1’s a Winner by Hot Chocolate, Swallow by Joey Cash, Seein’ Red by Unwritten Law.

Favorite authors?
S: Mary Gaitskill, Otessa Moshfegh, Eve Babitz, Philip Roth, Laurie Moore, David Sedaris, Lena Dunham.

K: Brett Easton Ellis, Charles Bukowski, David Foster Wallace, Ken Kesey, Chuck Palanhuik, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Gaitskill, Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, Ernest Hemingway, Eve Babitz, Leonard Cohen.

Favorite artworks?
S: Les mariés de la tour Eiffel by Marc Chagall. Skull of a Skeleton by Van Gogh. Also I fucking love miniatures, this guy on instagram @aidencreates makes these absolutely insane models of like, abandoned gas stations and dilapidated homes and stuff. It’s so cool. I could look at stuff like that all day.

K: Gotta be between Banksy’s framed piece that shredded itself and Nadia Lee Cohen’s collab short Christmas film with Kim K starring McAuley Kulkin as creepy Santa.

Favorite TV series?
S: The Sopranos, Mad Men, Girls, Sex & The City, Broad City, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Salt Lake City, Potomac and New York (with the OG cast, obviously).

K: The Sopranos, Mad Men, Girls, Sex & The City, One Tree Hill, Degrassi, South Park, Family Guy, and King of The Hill.

If you can choose 5 celebrities to have party with who they would be?
S: Bradley Cooper, Jake Gyllenhaal, Matthew McConaughey, Jacob Elordi, and Jon Hamm. In that order.

K: Anthony Bourdain, Chief Keef, Anna Nicole Smith, Yung Lean, Robert Deniro.

Do you feel envy for anyone? If so, for whom?
S: People who can finish projects.

K: Not on a sincere level, no. Sometimes I see people with money and wish I could trade places, but then realize they lack character. Which sucks.

The material good you most desire and envy?
S: I buy pretty much everything I want. If I can’t afford it I just tell myself it’s tacky.

K: Those little shoe disinfecting machines that Japanese content creators have.

The quality you would like to have and don’t have?
S: Whatever the opposite of stubbornness is.

K: Patience.

Who’s your favorite historical figure?
S: Elvis. I was obsessed with him as a child, I think because of the movie Lilo & Stitch. I still think he’s tea. I stopped over at Graceland two summers ago on a road trip from LA to NYC and you know what? I really got it. I saw what those boomers with a parasocial relationship to him saw.

K: JFK. I thought it was really sweet that he tried to reform mental asylums after his sister’s botched lobotomy. Love his New England aesthetic and the gall to have an affair with Marilyn. I am aware that there’s a possibility he killed her. Separate the art from the artist.

Can you define yourself with an adjective?
S: Petite.

K: Experienced (in more of a Jimi Hendrix way than a slutty way).

If you were an animal which one would you like to be?
S: A wild mare with a long white mane that shines like starlight.

K: A bear. Needs to binge eat and hibernate, but enjoys the outdoors and will claw your face off.

If you could host Punisher anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
S: An American legion somewhere in the California desert. That’s where the real people are.

K: In the path of Jesus’ pilgrimage in the sands of Jerusalem.

Do you believe in some religions?
S: I believe in all religions in that I believe many of them have an aversion to pork which I think makes sense. We’re not all that different.

K: I’m spiritual in a non-secular way that borrows ideas from multiple religions. I’m doing my own thing.

Do you have some phobias?
S: Scared of moths and butterflies, which you wouldn’t know looking at my lower back tattoo.

K: So many things. I have actual contamination OCD and am very claustrophobic. So settling in NYC was an obvious choice for me.

Do you consider yourself smart?
S: Well, yes.

K: In a lived and learned type of way. When it comes to traditional teachings I know that there is a huge chunk of context that I’ve missed out on. I improvise so I don’t have to address it.

The most precious material thing you own?
S: My Miu Miu purse.

K: It was a giant coffee cup with a photo of Randy’s Donuts on it that said “Los Angeles” across it. It was literally 2 feet tall and my family grew up putting coins in it then cashing it when we had like 100 bucks. It broke during my move from LA to NYC. I’m looking to find the exact same thing. HMU.

Best party you’ve been to?
S: Los Angeles Halloween 2023. Enough said.

K: Had to have been a house party in high school, honestly. Beer bongs, kegstands, making out with everyone, running from the cops… Everything since has been a let down.

If you could choose someone to follow you on Instagram who would you choose?
S: @champagnepapi.

K: Timothee Chalamet cuz I feel like he would fw my motion.

If you could choose a person you know to read this interview, who would it be?
S: My crush.

K: Maybe my family so they could get to know what I’m about.