Kristine McKenna wrote for The Los Angeles Times from 1977 through 1998 and was one of the first mainstream journalists chronicling the early L.A. punk rock scene. She was Music Editor for the influential avant-garde arts publication Wet, and the West Coast Editor of NME. Her profiles and criticism have appeared in Artforum, The New York Times, Artnews, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Administration grant in 1976, and a Critics Fellowship from the National Gallery of Art in 1991. McKenna co-curated the 1998 exhibition Forming: The Early Days of L.A. Punk for Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. She was co-curator of Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle, a traveling group exhibition that opened at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 2005. She is producer and co-writer of The Cool School, a documentary about L.A.’s first avant-garde gallery, and her book The Ferus Gallery: A Place to Begin was published by Steidl in 2009. In 2010 she partnered with Donna Wingate and Lorraine Wild to launch the publishing imprint Foggy Notion Books. In October 2015 it was announced she is co-writing David Lynch’s “quasi memoir” Room to Dream. That book is due out in June 2018. She has participated in Lynch’s Festival of Disruption, doing onstage interviews with Lynch, Frank Gehry, Ed Ruscha, Sheryl Lee, and others. She edited her many conversations with musician Dan Hicks into his posthumous autobiography I Scare Myself, published in 2017. She has also contributed to programs made by the radio artist Joe Frank.
Kristine McKenna on KCRW
More from KCRW
Amy Schumer, Sam Wasson, and Colman Domingo on The Treat
ArtsAmy Schumer talks wearing all the hats for her Hulu comedy “Life & Beth,” author Sam Wasson takes us into Francis Ford Coppola’s life, and Colman Domingo has The Treat.
Weekend film reviews: ‘Dune: Part 2,’ ‘Spaceman,’ ‘Shayda’
EntertainmentThe latest film releases are Dune: Part 2, Spaceman, Shayda, and Problemista. Weighing in are Alison Willmore, film critic for NY Magazine and Vulture, and Tim Grierson, Senior U.S.
Tainted Love: Gloria Jones and the Half-Life of a Hit | Lost Notes
MusicLong before “Tainted Love” was an ‘80s anthem, it was a 1965 B-side by LA’s Gloria Jones. We trace the song’s journey from a warehouse floor to the annals of pop history.
Black Pumas: KCRW Live from HQ
ArtsAdrian Quesada and Eric Burton of Grammy-nominated psych-soul band Black Pumas deliver a tour de funk that makes their new LP “Chronicles of a Diamond” pop.
Lost Notes, Season 4 - Ep 2: Mojo on Trial: The Seedy, Greedy World of Ruth Christie
MusicLost Notes details the darkly hilarious schemes of record-label magnate Ruth Christie, who instigated one of the most absurd court cases in music history.
Vince Staples, Philip Gefter, and Lulu Wang on The Treat
ArtsVince Staples gets absurd for Netflix, author Philip Gefter goes deep on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” and Lulu Wang has our Treat.
Kiefer Sutherland, Jovan Adepo, and Scott Simon on The Treat
ArtsKiefer Sutherland on Jack Bauer and William Friedkin, Jovan Adepo on “3 Body Problem,” NPR’s Scott Simon on The Treat.
Places & Spaces: The Mizell Brothers’ LA Alchemy
ArtsLost Notes introduces a pair of brothers - one from NASA, the other from Motown - who launched an entire musical universe from their Hollywood Hills hideout.
Porij: KCRW Live from HQ
ArtsManchester indie-dance quartet Porij brings cuts from their debut EP “Teething,” including “Unpredictable” to KCRW HQ.