Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side

“Twisted, devastating . . . A classic, blood-stained love letter to bohemian NYC.” —Craig Marks
When Rayya Elias was seven, her family fled their native Syria to settle in Detroit. Bullied in school and rebelling against her traditional home-life, Rayya turned her sights to fashion and music. She became a hairdresser and started a band that played the club scene in the early 1980s before she moved to New York at age twenty-three to further her musical career. She lived on the Lower East Side at the height of the punk movement and had passionate affairs with both sexes, but her casual drug use turned to addiction and Rayya was often homeless—between her visits to jail. Yet, her passion for life always saved her.
A rough and rollicking journey of courage and persistence against all odds that is told with a keen sense of humor and a lack of self-pity, Harley Loco is an unforgettable story about pursuing—not always by choice—a life of extremes until finally arriving at a place of contentment and peace.