Not your typical girl

17 January 1962 – 20 October 2010

Ari Up aka Madussa (born Arianna Forster), passed away Wednesday from what her stepfather John Lyndon described as a "serous illness." I'm so sad to say after a long battle with cancer this passionate creative force of nature decided it was time to go. A natural feminist with a strong message and a belief in the validity of her work, she was instrumental in shaping an attitude that women can be strong, sexy, powerful, individual and creative. Even young girls in the post punk eighties who weren't aware of the Slits were influenced by her style. A generation came of age as many female musicians unabashedly crashed the male dominated punk scene and made their own original and unique statement. American music journalist Lester Bangs described Ari Up, “In all sorts of rags and a fishnet shawl, high footing around the dance floor like some mix of spider and strutting ostrich.”

Her initial journey started when she was 14 as a founding member of the Slits, a mainly all female punk band. This seemed a natural choice as her mother was promoting bands in the music industry. She was deeply influenced by the music around her which quite literally floated in and out of her day to day life. Ari's mother took her daughter to see the sex pistols in London . A big night for everyone as it turned out, Ari met a founding band mate there and formed a band shortly after, her mother eventually married the singer. The slits were together from 1976 to the early eighties. The music was deeply influenced by her love of reggae, a style which she would later fully explore in the dancehall scene in Jamaica, London and Flatbush New York. Her initial work with the slits can best be described as dub music. This genre consists predominantly of instrumental remixes of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, emphasizing the drum and bass. The Slits had catchy tunes which were pop fun with a Jamaican feel.

After her time with the Slits, she traveled extensively living in Belize, Indonesia, and finally settled permanently in Kingston Jamaica. In 2005, Ari Up reformed The Slits, and in 2006 released the EP Revenge of the Killer Slits. “The only burden of the Slits is that we were ahead of our time, we're pretty much the same. We're not very much tamed. Nobody was able to tame us over the years. So you'd be surprised. We're just revolutionary because that's just what we are.”

Dedicated to her art, soulful and true to her vision she believed in her herself. She had a profound respect for woman everywhere and no tolerance for misogynistic men which I'm sure were in no short supply in the world she lived grew up in. She was also a naturalist and holistic. She paved the way for people like Isa Chandra Moskowitz and organizations like Food not Bombs to exist under the premise of being punk rock, healthy living, and for the greater good all at the same time. You were never a typical girl, quite the opposite, uncharacteristic and completely unique. Thank you for your honesty you were very brave in this lifetime. Peace and love to you on your journey.