Evans Punk Culture
Evans Publishes Visual History of Midwest Punk Culture
Kelli D. Evans, MFA, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Fine and Performing Arts, has published It’s a Freak Show, Ace! Punk Flyer Art from the Legendary Jockey Club 1982–1988 (Aurore Press), a comprehensive visual history of the influential punk scene that emerged in the Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky region during the 1980s.
The full-color volume documents years of music, art, and community at the Jockey Club, a venue that became a cornerstone of the Midwest punk movement. This compilation preserves original paste-ups, set lists, tickets, calendars, gig photos, and zine ads, highlighting the club’s legendary impact on the punk music world. Featuring over 370 bands, the book is a testament to the Jockey Club’s pivotal role in shaping the Midwest punk scene.
“This project was about preserving the creative energy and community that defined an entire generation of artists and musicians,” said Evans. “The flyers, the typography, and the immediacy of the design each tell a story of belonging and rebellion that continues to reverberate in visual culture today.”
By preserving and contextualizing the visual artifacts of this community, It’s a Freak Show, Ace! offers new insight into how regional music scenes shaped American punk and contributed to a broader culture of independent design and self-expression.
“If you were there and saw legendary bands like The Cramps, The Damned, The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Hüsker Dü, The Descendents, Minutemen, D.O.A., Johnny Thunders, Toxic Reasons, and hundreds more, this book will bring back fond memories of what was a literal sanctuary for many of us,” said Editor-in-Chief of CincyMusic Courtney Phenicie. “If you weren’t there, this book captures a time and place long gone—but the artifacts remain of the incredible music and culture of the 1980s alternative, punk, and hardcore music scene.”
“Professor Evans’ work exemplifies how we can understand culture through the lens of creativity, history, and community,” said Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her ability to merge design practice with cultural preservation offers our students a powerful example of how the arts can document and shape social change.”
Evans is an accomplished graphic designer with a multidisciplinary practice spanning print and digital media, animation, film and video, and three-dimensional design.
It’s a Freak Show, Ace! Punk Flyer Art from the Legendary Jockey Club 1982–1988 is available now through Aurore Press. Learn more about Evans.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Kelli D. Evans, MFA, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Fine and Performing Arts, has published It’s a Freak Show, Ace! Punk Flyer Art from the Legendary Jockey Club 1982–1988 (Aurore Press), a comprehensive visual history of the influential punk scene that emerged in the Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky region during the 1980s.
The full-color volume documents years of music, art, and community at the Jockey Club, a venue that became a cornerstone of the Midwest punk movement. This compilation preserves original paste-ups, set lists, tickets, calendars, gig photos, and zine ads, highlighting the club’s legendary impact on the punk music world. Featuring over 370 bands, the book is a testament to the Jockey Club’s pivotal role in shaping the Midwest punk scene.
“This project was about preserving the creative energy and community that defined an entire generation of artists and musicians,” said Evans. “The flyers, the typography, and the immediacy of the design each tell a story of belonging and rebellion that continues to reverberate in visual culture today.”
By preserving and contextualizing the visual artifacts of this community, It’s a Freak Show, Ace! offers new insight into how regional music scenes shaped American punk and contributed to a broader culture of independent design and self-expression.
“If you were there and saw legendary bands like The Cramps, The Damned, The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Hüsker Dü, The Descendents, Minutemen, D.O.A., Johnny Thunders, Toxic Reasons, and hundreds more, this book will bring back fond memories of what was a literal sanctuary for many of us,” said Editor-in-Chief of CincyMusic Courtney Phenicie. “If you weren’t there, this book captures a time and place long gone—but the artifacts remain of the incredible music and culture of the 1980s alternative, punk, and hardcore music scene.”
“Professor Evans’ work exemplifies how we can understand culture through the lens of creativity, history, and community,” said Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her ability to merge design practice with cultural preservation offers our students a powerful example of how the arts can document and shape social change.”
Evans is an accomplished graphic designer with a multidisciplinary practice spanning print and digital media, animation, film and video, and three-dimensional design.
It’s a Freak Show, Ace! Punk Flyer Art from the Legendary Jockey Club 1982–1988 is available now through Aurore Press. Learn more about Evans.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”