From Punk to Preservation: The Oklahoma Underground Music Archive 

By Meg Nance Coker, Special Collections Librarian 

It’s likely that the images that pop into your mind when you think of the words “punk” and “archive” don’t exactly mesh well together. But even raucous concepts like punk, metal, goth, experimental, indie, hip hop, or various other flavors of alternative music belong in a library and archive as part of our local history and culture. Everyone’s stories are history. The question then, is how do you go about preserving and sharing something wild in a world that likes order and quiet? 

That’s the question I mulled over as a new MLS employee looking at a project that was then called The History of Punk.It was more a time capsule of a moment and a music scene than a timeline of a genre, though, so I changed the name to The Punk Project. We had a smattering of physical items – used hair dye bottles, distressed and customized sweaters, flyers and posters, zines (aka DIY magazines or fanzines) – plus a facebook group and around a thousand digital images shared with us by community members. Then I talked with others who were part of the scene then and now about what it meant to preserve and share this particular piece of our past, and possibly its present? Within a few months a spark caught, and we collectively brainstormed a new name: the Oklahoma Underground Music Archive (or OK UMA) because our local music scene is more than a single genre. 

Fast-forward a little. We had a crustpunk show at the Downtown Library! It was a gorgeous show with great bands and community members of all ages. We are now printing the 28th issue of a monthly music zine, UMAmi, that includes reviews, articles, collaborative playlists, a community message board, local music gigs, and a variety of other submissions that then are enthusiastically collected and shared not only across the entire library system, but also at a variety of other venues across the metropolitan area. 

How can you be involved? If you have any tickets, flyers, posters, photographs, zines, or other souvenirs of local alternative music past and present, we’d love to preserve and share them with others. If you want to contribute to an issue of UMAmi, we’re always looking for new collaborators – email Oklahoma.UMA@gmail.com with your ideas.