Skeletons Rising in Skinz n Bonez

Abstract

This chapter highlights a new invocation of the skull and bones tradition—the Downtown women’s group Skinz n Bonez, who recast elements of a traditionally African-American, all-male practice in their performance of female solidarity. The chapter surveys the bone gang history, focusing on the lineage and enactments of the North Side Skull and Bone Gang, the inheritor of this practice. The chapter then examines the emergence of the all-female group, chiefly white in membership, and how it has advanced its own style and identity.