Pwnc: O Dywysog i Reslwr Croeswisgo / Subject: From a Prince to a Cross-dressing Wrestler

In the summer of 2024 I had the great fortune to spend all of July as artist-in-residence at The 309 Punk Project in Pensacola, Florida (their first international AIR no less!) I went there with the intention of researching into a disparate collection of Welsh connections I’d found to the city, and then turning them into a punk rock EP with local musicians. That’s (almost) exactly what I did…

The connections included Prince Madoc’s purported landing at the mouth of Mobile Bay in 1170, the construction of Fort Morgan at that site (named after a revolutionary soldier of Welsh extraction), the establishing of Strega Nona’s - the city’s first organic-vegetarian restaurant by a Welsh Immigrant (Anne Pugh, originally of Three Cliffs Bay), a fort named ‘The Prince of Wales Redoubt’ used by the British in their unsuccessful 1783 siege of Pensacola, and the long-term residence in Gulf Breeze, Pensacola, of Welsh wrestler, Adrian Street – a series of connections ranging from a Prince to a cross-dressing wrestler.

The 309 Punk Project is a really extraordinary organisation - born of the necessity and desire to save one of the oldest punk houses in the US (there’s no real UK equivalent to a punk house, but it’s most akin to a squat or a very cheap house lived in by musicians, artists, and activists, also being used to stage gigs and events). They have successfully preserved the house, which now contains an archive to Pensacola’s subcultures, a recording studio, an artist-in-residence programme, and a couple of long-term residents still living upstairs.

I spent my time there walking, photographing, travelling, talking to people, visiting museums and archives - really just getting to know the place as much as I could and digging around to find out more about these connections to Wales.

The most historical of these - the purported landing of Prince Madoc nearby in 1170 (leading to longstanding rumour/belief that there a Welsh-speaking indigenous people can be found in America as a byproduct of this landing - something the musician Gruff Rhys explore through his fantastic film and album ‘American Interior’
This led us, initially, to Fort Morgan (named after Revolutionary War Hero Daniel Morgan, whose parents/grandparents were Welsh immigrants), where a plaque had once been sited to commemorate this landing, and then to the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Mobile, Alabama, where the plaque now resides in their garden. Thanks to the Belles of Mobile for the guided tour they gave me to me and Scott (director of the 309).

The song ‘Redoubt’ tells the story of The Prince of Wales Redoubt - a fort used by the British during the siege of Pensacola. The British lost and the fort was renamed Fort Sombrero by the victorious Spanish, before falling into disrepair and now having disappeared completely.

‘Sweet Transvsetite with a Broken Nose’ is actually a cover-version of a song by Adrian Street and the Pile Drivers. Adrian Street was a wrestler, originally from Byrn Mawr, in South Wales and known for his confrontationally flamboyant style in the ring. A fascinating character who was, arguably, leading the charge in questioning gender stereotypes. He ended up living in Gulf Breeze, Pensacola, for many years, before returning to Cwmbran in South Wales for the last few years of his life before passing away in 2023. As well as the cover-version of his song on the record, I painted a portrait of him on the guitar I used to write and record the EP and donated it to the 309 archive.

Then the last two tracks on the EP were another cover version - the song ‘Yma o Hyd’, which I saw as an extension of the ideas behind the inclusion of the ‘Madoc’ song - and also the original track ‘Strega Nona’s’, inspired by the opening of Pensacola’s first vegetarian/organic restaurant by the Welsh immigrant, Anne Pugh, in a old former-hospital. The restaurant is no longer there, but I was able to be in touch with Anne and her family through her ex-husband (and local poet), Jamey Jones, and the lyrics were created from a shared email the family sent around to each other bullet-pointing memories from the restaurant - ‘terrazzo floors in an old morgue’, ‘five gallons of syrup all over the floor’, ‘poetry readings, movie nights’, ‘John Sinclair of MC5’ etc.

There were lots of elements to the project overall, including a couple of events in the house where I talked to a people about the project, baked them Bara Brith and screened the movie ‘Pride’; there was a great article in the Nation newspaper called ‘A Letter from Pensacola’; I was interviewed on Lynn Bowles Radio Cymru show (listen below); gave a talk about the project as part of the inaugural Cardiff Music City Festival; made an exhibition version of the project at UCA Farnham (Feb 2024); and another at Pensacola Museum of Art as part of a 309 Artists-in-Residence show (October 2025).

Most importantly, I made a lot of new friends along the way. In many ways, none more-so than the musicians I got to work with on the project, such as Barret Williamson, Scott Satterwhite, Valerie George and Wanda Doomy.

The EP makes all these stories publicly accessible in a unique and original way and is available across all streaming services. As well as the EP, the project has been presented publicly as an illustrated talk and an exhibition, once at UCA Farnham (Feb 2025) and again at Pensacola Museum of Art (Oct 2025).

This project/residency was made possible by an International Opportunities Grant from Wales Arts International.