No New York (2026)

In 1975, a young queer singer from Cleveland meets photographer Nan Goldin, an encounter that leads them to New York’s bombed-out downtown, where something unprecedented is brewing. At Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, in derelict lofts and underground clubs, a generation of visionary women artists is rewriting the rules of creativity, sexuality and power. Adele Bertei did not merely witness the No Wave explosion: she helped ignite it. As acetone organist for the Contortions and assistant to Brian Eno, she stood at the epicentre as punk collided with post-punk, giving birth to a counterculture that fused music, art, cinema, fashion and outlaw literature in an uncompromising explosion of creativity. While mainstream culture was mired in sexism and homophobia, these artists created something fluid, fierce and transgressive. Raw, gripping and illustrated with rare photographs from personal collections, No New York offers an insider’s account of the women who broke through every barrier in their path, taking readers into the artistic and sexual experimentation of an era when authentic expression mattered more than money or fame.