Monica Vivienne Richards is an American goth rock and hardcore punk singer, songwriter, and artist born on May 24, 1965. Richards began her career as a teenager in the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, fronting the band Hate From Ignorance and performing contemporaneously with acts such as Bad Brains and Minor Threat. She is recognized as an icon of the goth subculture and has fronted the bands Madhouse, Strange Boutique, The Eden House, and Faith and the Muse. An honors graduate in literature from American University, Richards released her first book, The Book of Annwyn, in 1998. Her solo discography includes the studio albums InfraWarrior (2007), Naiades (2012), and Kindred (2013), as well as the EP The Strange Familiar (2011). She collaborated with Anthony Jones on the records Syzygy (2018) and Aestuarium (2019). Richards also produces visual art, ranging from early punk flyers to paintings and the graphic novel project Anafae.
