CUNY’s Feminist Press Offers Pussy Riot Anthology as E-book

By Alex Mutter

On September 25, the Feminist Press at the City University of New York will release Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom for download on the Kindle, iPad, Nook, and other e-reading devices.

The book is a collection of letters, songs, poems and courtroom statements from the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. Three of the band’s five members are serving two-year prison terms for “felony hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” following a performance on February 21, 2012, inside the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. During the performance, which lasted a scant 40 seconds before the band was driven out of the cathedral by security, Pussy Riot asked Virgin Mary to “drive out Russian president Vladimir Putin from the church.”

All proceeds from the sale of Pussy Riot! will help support the group’s legal defense team.

Since their sentencing on August 17, Pussy Riot has garnered worldwide media attention, and Russia’s leaders have come increasingly under fire from Western commentators.

Although there is no clear end yet in sight for the their incarceration, Russian Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev has stated that he believes the three imprisoned members of Pussy Riot should be released.