Pom Pom Squad

Mar 17, 2022

10:00pm – 10:40pm CT

Stubb’s

When Pom Pom Squad’s Mia Berrin was 21 years old, she fell in love. Sure, she’d been in love before, but this time, something was different: “It just felt like a switch had flipped inside my head,” she says. “I realized I had been living a life that was not my own, watching myself from the outside.” As a kid who bounced from town to town growing up, and as a person of color in predominantly white spaces, Berrin had become accustomed to maintaining a constant awareness of how others perceived her—a “split-brain mentality” that she adopted as a necessary means of survival. But now, tumbling through her first queer romance—and her first queer heartbreak—some of that self-separateness began to mend: “Suddenly,” she says, “I was in a body that was mine.” The result of this stymying, galvanizing period—of escaping to come back—is their debut album: Death of a Cheerleader. With Death of a Cheerleader, Pom Pom Squad offer a fresh and decidedly queer take on picking up the pieces—from heartbreak, from injustice—and creating yourself anew.

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.

Primary Access
Music Badge
Platinum Badge
Secondary Access
Interactive Badge
Music Festival Wristband
Film Badge
Artist Wristband
About
From:
Brooklyn, NY
Genre:
Subgenre:
Grunge