Long Live Queer Nightlife
How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
It’s closing time for an alarming number of gay bars in cities around the globe—but it’s definitely not the last dance
In this exhilarating journey into underground parties, pulsating with life and limitless possibility, acclaimed author Amin Ghaziani unveils the unexpected revolution revitalizing urban nightlife.
Far from the gay bar with its largely white, gay male clientele, here is a dazzling scene of secret parties—club nights—wherein culture creatives, many of whom are queer, trans, and racial minorities, reclaim the night in the name of those too long left out. Episodic, nomadic, and radically inclusive, club nights are refashioning queer nightlife in boundlessly imaginative and powerfully defiant ways.
Drawing on Ghaziani’s immersive encounters at underground parties in London and more than one hundred riveting interviews with everyone from bar owners to party producers, revelers to rabble-rousers, Long Live Queer Nightlife showcases a spectacular, if seldom-seen, vision of a queer world shimmering with self-empowerment, inventiveness, and joy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this eye-opening study, sociologist Ghaziani (The Dividends of Dissent) disputes the widespread notion that the queer community is suffering in the wake of an "epidemic" of LGBTQ bar closures over the past two decades. While acknowledging some problems stemming from such closures, rather than dwelling on "decline," Ghaziani argues that queer night life is undergoing a hidden renaissance, outside of mainstream view. In particular, he points to the rise of themed club nights, which are often hosted by intersectional queer collectives in rented spaces on the outskirts of cities, describing these events as ephemeral, diverse, and potentially revolutionary. Usually inclusive of members of the queer community who were previously excluded from mainstream gay bars, these gatherings, Ghaziani argues, exemplify the radical type of community-building that emerges in disruptive political moments. Furthermore, they gesture to what society could look like in a more egalitarian and collective-oriented future. As examples, Ghaziani spotlights events such as Femmetopia, a bimonthly London club night celebrating feminine gender expression, and CAMPervan, a traveling free outdoor party for working-class queer people across Europe. Ghaziani provides an immersive view of these communities, profiling partygoers and event planners and participating in the club nights himself. It's an invigorating and upbeat view of queer life.
