Raves & Resistance Cover Image

Raves & Resistance

Counterculture Stories

High in a volcano mountain-crater, a woman emerges from her clothes and slips into a festival lake and into a new moment. A punk show brings together the pierced bodies and studded minds of young radicals in a slam dance of social rejection and self discovery. A former revolutionary bomber is exposed by a more recent tragedy. An artist from 1960s Moscow looks for an audience outside the legacy of East and West. A student of the protests against the Vietnam War remembers the National Guard helicopter dropping tear gas as her final exam.

All culture begins first as counterculture. The new always arises as a rejection of the old. What is known, what is possible, is always discovered by people who push at its limits. Revelry and rebellion explore new social territory and leave cultural paths for others to follow.

This issue of the London Reader features counterculture stories by award-winning author Ewan Morrison; the Arthur C Clarke and Philip K Dick Award-winner Gwyneth Jones; the notable Patty Somlo; Peter Gallagher; the famed Russian and Hollywood filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky; Vicki Derderian; and Stephen O’Donnell. Its pages are also filled with words, poetry, and art by Kathryn Paulsen, Mark Kirkbride, Roy Duffield, Allison Whittenberg, Bryon MacWilliams, Lucia Galloway, Lorette C Luzajic, Tim Fowler, Montina Guiry, Sean Christopher Ward, Calvin Lai, and Bertone Studio, by Michiyo & Eduardo. Finally, the creative work in this volume is joined by interviews with James St. James, iconic television personality and author of Party Monster; Cat Marnell, former party-girl and New York Times bestselling-author of the memoir, How to Murder Your Life; and Ayelet Waldman, respected essayist and author of A Really Good Day. They open up about pushing back, setting trends, and seeing the world change around them.

The revolution is in every party, every festival, every political rally, every protest, and indeed, every place where people come together and connect outside the old architecture of state and capital. The stories in this volume of the London Reader are about people finding those moments of rebellion—whether small and personal in music and festivals, or big and revolutionary—and forging brave new paths into the future.

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