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Embrace

Although short-lived, Embrace helped reimagine the artistic possibilities of punk. Formed in 1985 from former members of Minor Threat and the Faith, Embrace built on the forward-looking instrumental work of the Faith, incorporating vocalist Ian MacKaye’s direct and introspective lyrics to create an evocative, vulnerable, and occasionally melancholy style of punk. The group’s passionate performances and their lone, self-titled LP unintentionally inspired the emo subgenre of punk that grew in popularity throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Drawn from the Sharon Cheslow Punk Flyers collection at the University of Maryland.

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Fliers

Rites of Spring flyer with handwritten details and a black-and-white image of a man standing and a man sitting.

Rites of Spring, Embrace, Gray Matter - Food For Thought, Washington, D.C., July 27, 1985

Embrace flyer with hand-drawn title and details and a dark, scratchy drawing of a hand surrounded by flames.

Embrace, Rites of Spring, Lunchmeat - 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., August 29, 1985

7 Seconds flyer white handwritten details and cartoon images of a man holding a mic and a concert.

7 Seconds and Embrace - Lake Braddock Community Center, Burke, Virginia, September 10, 1985

Rites of Spring flyer with three images of fossil creatures.

Rites of Spring, Beefeater, Embrace, Dag Nasty - Hall of Nations, Washington, D.C., December 4, 1985 (Version 1)

Rites of Spring Flier with abstract dark swirls surrounding the flyer title.

Rites of Spring, Beefeater, Embrace, Dag Nasty - Hall of Nations, Washington, D.C., December 4, 1985 (Version 2)

Rites of Spring flyer with handwritten titles and details and a dark, line-sketched illustration of a man in the middle.

Rites of Spring, Beefeater, Embrace, Dag Nasty - Hall of Nations, Washington, D.C., December 4, 1985 (Version 3)

Embrace flyer on yellow paper with a hand-drawn image of a red flower surrounded by black spikes.

Embrace, Reptile House, Kingface - 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., January 30, 1986

Beefeater flyer with a collage photos of a man and a child holding a candle, surrounded by handwritten details.

Beefeater, Embrace, Dag Nasty - Fairfax, Virginia, February 1, 1986

Embrace flyer with a black-and-white abstract drawing of a naked figure and a monster behind it.

Embrace and Mourning Glories - d.c. Space, Washington, D.C., February 24, 1986

Gray Matter flyer with a photo of the bandmembers drinking coffee.

Gray Matter and Embrace - 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., March 13, 1986

Ephemera

Embrace lyric sheet, with printed lyrics on ripped sheets of paper on a black background.

Embrace lyric sheet, 1985

About

Persistent Vision presents the University of Maryland's digitized special collections materials related to punk in the Washington, D.C. area. Most of these materials reside at Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. These materials help to tell the story of a subculture and a community that has thrived since 1976.

Curators: John Davis, Ben Jackson
Design: Ben Jackson, Natalie Salive
Authors: Ben Jackson, John Davis, and Jessica Grimmer

With help from: Cindy Zhao, Jeremy Gottwig, Amanda Henderson, Gabby Cameron, Hayden Kramer

Contact Us

Special Collections in Performing Arts is located in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library on University of Maryland’s College Park campus.

For general information about the library and our collections, contact us