“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
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio-synced transcript.
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:
Instagram: punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
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