Corvallis’ first punk underground swap meet takes place on campus

Local zines, records, posters and more filled the basement of the Arts Center on Sunday. Members of the Corvallis community gathered to share their punk-related projects with one another.

“A lot of people in Corvallis don’t realize that we have such a vibrant DIY music scene, so we organized Take Up Space as a way to make it easy for people to see how much we have happening here,” said Indiana Laub, one of the organizers of the event and a Corvallis resident.

KBVR FM, Secret Pennies Records, Sucker Mag, Allied Students for Another Politics (ASAP) and the Benton County Skateboarding Alliance were just a few of the groups represented at the swap meet. Those without their own projects to present were still given the chance to get creative. The ‘You Can Button That!’ table provided comic books, magazines and other tools for community members to make their own buttons.

“DIY communities are made up of people who are supportive of each other and challenge each other to be better and stronger people,” Laub said.

At ‘Take Up Space’, friends encouraged one another to sign up for ‘Band in a Hat’, an event where those who signed up were randomly assigned to bandmates and will perform a live show at Interzone.

Fans of musicians SZA and Thundercat were especially fortunate as KBVR FM was giving away free tickets to their shows at the event. More freebies could be found at the table for Secret Pennies Records, where compilations of local Corvallis music were handed out in CD format.

In addition to music, politics were also present at the swap meet. ASAP, the organizers behind the most recent protest against OSU’s tuition increase, were tabling at ‘Take Up Space’.

“DIY culture and radical politics connect in a lot of ways and historically there has been overlap so it seemed to make sense that it was a place that we could find receptive people, or at least have some good conversations,” said David DeHart, ASAP member and a junior in environmental sciences.

Although it was a small event, those who attended ‘Take Up Space’ felt like it had been successful in its goal to showcase local and underground projects. Even for those outside of the punk culture, the event still proved to be accessible.

“It was very welcoming and it was a cool experience for me. For starting up, it was good in size. I think it will only go up in numbers,” said Juan Flores, a junior in environmental sciences.

Jessica Tafoya-Soberanis, a sophomore in women, gender and sexuality studies enjoyed the event, even though it was not exactly as she expected it to be.

“I thought it was going to be a little bigger, but I liked the variety of booths that attended,” Tafoya-Soberanis said.

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