Raving

McKenzie Wark – Raving
navigation series - volume #0025

In her book Raving, McKenzie Wark shows the intimate and collective sides of life in the New York trans and queer rave scene. For Wark, rave is not just a dance or club thing: It is much more about self-expression, performative ritual, a literally shared bodily process leading toward catharsis. But it is also a manifesto, a shared practice, and a common resistance against the pressures of consumerism and patriarchal structures. A strongly autofictional approach allows Wark to reveal in detail her purely intimate need to merge with sound, rhythm, and her own body. With great openness, she describes her rave-defined attitude toward sex, drugs, and the search for her own boundaries in the seemingly endless sub-space of the big city. As a result, Raving is an extremely raw, authentic, and plastic portrait that flows with energy, power, and defiance. The first Czech edition, translated by Vít Bohal and Františka Blažková, will be published by tranzit.cz in September 2024 as the 25th volume of the series Navigation