Communicator Series presents WRITING ON RAVING
Performed at
Poetic Research Bureau
Los Angeles, California
23 May 2025
Curated by
Emji Saint Spero
Sound by
jeremy kennedy
Video by
Nina Sarnelle
Communicator Series presents an evening of autotextual inquiry, sonic assemblage, and immersive exchange to celebrate the release of Writing on Raving, an anthology of fugitive encounters and ephemeral intimacies from the Brooklyn underground rave scene and beyond, edited by McKenzie, Geoffrey Mak and Zoë Beery. Resisting both archival codification and the delulu utopias of the present tense, Writing on Raving enacts a critically dissociative practice of rupture. It reverberates in ambiguity, dehydrated and deconstructing...becoming, in a sense, the after after afters.
This event features hybrid performances by McKenzie Wark, Zoey Greenwald, Jasmine Infiniti, and Kumi James (aka BAE BAE), in concert with the LA debut of Rave New World’s mini-documentary on Singapore's queer cyberpunk rave Bussy Temple and the broader socio-political implications of raving in one of the world's strictest anti-drug countries. This film is part of a broader ongoing series about global rave scenes, and will be introduced by host Michelle Lhooq.
7pm Doors
7:30pm Performances
Free / RSVP
Writing on Raving is available at OR Books
About the Artists
McKenzie Wark is the author, among other things, of RAVING (Duke 2023).
ig @mckenziewark3000
Order Raving
Jasmine Infiniti is a non-binary trans person of color artist and DJ, originally hailing from the Bronx and now based in Oakland, CA. Raised within the vibrant New York ballroom scene, she's a proud member of the House of Infiniti and serves as the Bay Area Chapter Mother. As a co-founder of New World Dysorder – an international DJ collective, record label, and rave/party birthed in the Bay Area – she has been pivotal in shaping underground club culture. Her creative works extend to music production, highlighted by her impactful debut album, BxtchSlap. Known for her dynamic and genre-bending sound, Jasmine Infiniti has extensively traveled the globe, captivating audiences with high-energy DJ sets and performances in renowned clubs and festivals across North America, Europe, and beyond, solidifying her influence on the international underground scene.
Michelle Lhooq and Brian Echon are a filmmaking duo whose work explores global rave culture, drugs, and spiritual practices. Michelle is an independent journalist covering psychedelics and electronic music for her newsletter Rave New World, as well as The Guardian, Bloomberg, and other publications. Brian is the director of the short films Zwischenzug (2023) and Enter The Stabway (2018), and previously programmed movies at Toy District Theater, hosted the downtown rooftop party Stoners Night, and ran underground venue Werk LA.
Rave New World
ig @ravenewworldwide
Zoey Greenwald is a writer and editor based between Los Angeles and New York. Her writing has been featured in Document Journal, the Contemporary Art Review of LA, The Whitney Review of New Writing, and the Michigan Quarterly Review. Her writing for performance has been staged at Frieze LA and her academic work in cultural studies has been presented at USC and UC Irvine. She is editor-in-chief of SPASM magazine and the nightlife editor of literary tabloid On the Rag.
Kumi James, aka BAE BAE, is a multidisciplinary artist who works with sound, music, and video. She is an organizer of innovative spaces for collaboration and community and throws the LA underground party Hood Rave. James' work confronts capitalist exploitation, neocolonialism, and the paradoxes of racial and gendered alienation through a historical materialist lens. Her uncanny sonic assemblages and dj mixes spark flows of memory in the body's senses. James convenes spaces that challenge conventional understandings of what it means to gather and form community.