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

Books & Books, Coral Gables. May 1, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, Elias left with her family at the age of seven to escape rising religious and political tensions and settled in the suburbs of Detroit, only to discover herself newly embedded in a different kind of hostile landscape. Bullied in school for everything from not being cool enough (her mother made her clothes) to her language barrier, and caught between the worlds of her traditional family and her tough American classmates, she rebelled early.

Elias moved to New York City young to become a musician and kept herself afloat with an uncommon talent for cutting hair. At the height of the punk and new wave movements, life on the Lower East Side was full of adventure, creative inspiration and temptation. But before long, her passionate affairs with lovers of both sexes went awry, her drug recreation became drug addiction, and if she wasn’t living on the streets, she was in jail.

Rayya Elias was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1960, and moved to the United States in 1967. She is a musician, hairdresser, filmmaker, and also sells real estate to make some extra scratch. Elias lives in New York City and has been clean since August 8, 1997.

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