NYC photographer and filmmaker Destiny Mata is releasing a new photo book, The Way We Were, focusing on her time documenting punks of color in NYC over the last six years. It’s due out April 1 via The Culture Crush, and here’s more from the description:

Destiny Mata, (aka “The People’s Photographer”) began documenting the alternative punks of color scene throughout all 5 boroughs of New York City in 2014 up until the devastating 2020 pandemic shutdown. This definitive work weaves together the complicated overlapping collectives and communities that formed around the music of the marginalized. Including the voices of the organizers, artists, and illustrators, she beautifully captures the DIY spaces, faces, and places, the loss and the love, in The Way We Were.

“The first Punx Of Color show I went to was in a basement in Brooklyn. I was just in shock at how the people had all come together—all punks of color, all from New York City—I had never been to a show that was made up of a bunch of Black and Brown musicians, the avant garde of the disenfranchised, all local activists—and like me, all outcasts. For once I didn’t feel like I was being judged, I felt like I could just be myself. I felt like I was home.” —DM

A virtual release party for the book streams on Friday, March 5 at 7 PM ET on Veeps. Brooklyn venue Saint Vitus is presenting it along with Culture Crush, and it features performances from Chola Spears, Dracula O, Rebelmatic, Fairy God, Posterboy 2000, Witch Slap, Christy Road, Rebus Chaos, Mater Tenebrarum, and Hardcore Bae, appearances by Kreature, Yung Mayne, Adrian Miles, Ratas En Zelo, Damarys Alvarez, Coma White, Dog Breath, and Kiara, special guests Janette Beckman and Godlis, and more. Tickets and merch are on sale now, including livestream tickets that come with a copy of the book, and a portion of proceeds will be donated to mutual aid funds.

See the show flyer, a few stills from the release special, and check out some of Mata’s work, below.