Krukowski Publishes Playa Dust Book

Adjunct Assistant Professor Samantha Krukowski just published an edited book called Playa Dust: Collected Stories from Burning Man. The book was released by Black Dog Publishing in London, UK. Below is the description from http://blackdogonline.com/all-books/playa-dust.html:

The answers to the world’s questions about Burning Man, a cult desert festival in the USA that is so popular that there is a lottery for its tickets and is so unique that much debate has been ignited about influence of this festival on ideas of anti-capitalism, self-sufficient living and creative community.

Burning Man’s in-your-face, counterculture vibe has meant that the festival has always been something of a media darling. But when the event sold out for the first time in 2011, there was a marked increase in the commentary about its history, current status and future. When, in 2012, a new random lottery system for tickets left so many long-time attendees ticketless, that commentary deepened. Questions about the evolution, meaning and value of Burning Man as an experiment in community, self-sufficiency and anti-capitalism are being raised, and Playa Dust seeks to answer them.

Playa Dust is a compilation of essays by authors who are part of the universe of Burning Man or who envisage the many ideas and landscapes on its periphery. By juxtaposing an unusual array of voices and stories, the volume reveals the complex nature of this annual pilgrimage, now in its twenty-seventh year. Contributors include those who built the first wooden effigies on San Francisco’s Baker Beach from 1986 to 1990, in the gatherings that would later become Burning Man; artists who have installed works at the festival; writers, musicologists, photographers and filmmakers who have made work there; architects who have built there, sociologists who have studied Burning Man’s experimental nature and even lawyers who have brokered Burning Man’s controversial existence.