Jessica Hopper is coming to town for Hard Working Class Heroes 2015. The Chicago-based music and culture writer is a senior editor at Pitchfork and editor-in-chief of The Pitchfork Review.
Her latest book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic(Featerproof Books), presents a snapshot of her 20 years to date in the critic business with ace pieces on R Kelly, Lana Del Rey and Hole, ruminations on the visceral excitement of riot grrrl and a poke around the emo movement’s problem with women. In our book, she really is one of the finest writers in the game – and she’s also got a hell of a lot of powerful, passionate good sense to make about sexism in the music business, as this recent hugely acclaimed keynote from the BIGSOUND conference in Brisbane shows.
Aside from her appearance on a panel about music journalism at HWCH Convention on Saturday October 3, Jessica will also be taking part in an one-on-one Banterconversation with myself, as well as reading from her recent book, at the HWCH Box office, Green Party Pop Up Shop, 90 South Great Georges St., Dublin 2 on Sunday October 4. I don’t know about Jessica, but it will definitely be the first interview I’ve done in a former dry cleaners and launderette. Doors for this all-ages event open at 5.30pm and the interview kicks off at 6pm. Admission is free, but is on a strictly first come first served basis.