Kamala Parks
Kamala Lyn Parks is an American drummer, songwriter, tour booker, and author from Berkeley, California. She played drums for Kamala & The Karnivores (with Ivy DuBois of Sweet Baby, Lynda Skulpone, and Michelle Cruz Gonzales of Bitch Fight and Spitboy), Cringer, The Gr’ups, Naked Aggression, Hers Never Existed, and Plot 66.
Kamala Lyn Parks | |
|---|---|
Parks at a backyard show in Pinole, California in 1989 | |
| Born | |
| Education | BA Math (1996); MS Civil Engineering and MCP Planning (2005) |
| Alma mater | Mills College, U.C. Berkeley |
| Occupation(s) | Drummer, Musician, Songwriter, Transportation Planner |
In 1986, Victor Hayden and Kamala partnered with Maximumrocknroll to establish 924 Gilman Street, an all-ages collectively organized music venue in Berkeley. She was instrumental in finding the warehouse in North Berkeley that became home to the local punk scene. She also actively participated in the city council meeting for the venue's zoning approval. For years, she booked shows at Gilman, while also cultivating a national tour network for punk bands such as Operation Ivy, Neurosis, the Offspring, and Citizen Fish.
She starred in and acted as a consultant for the 2018 movie Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk. She wrote extensively for Maximumrocknroll and contributed a story to the Berkeley Repertory Theater 2021 audio series, Place/Settings: Berkeley, read by actor Denmo Ibrahim.
She currently works as a transportation planner for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District and is married to musician Frank Piegaro Jr.