New York’s clubs are back, and with them a sense of community I’d forgotten existed | Larissa Pham

As I dance, it doesn't feel like a night out - it feels like a homecoming

In 2018, upon her return from a trip to China, my roommate gifted me a pack of black surgical masks. Affixed to the plastic packaging was an explanatory note: RAVE MASKS :)

I knew the look - the masks were purely aesthetic for certain ravers; dressed and masked in serious black, drifting past me at warehouse parties in New York, where I live. But it was a hard look to live up to, and my rave outfits leaned more toward sweaty efficiency, anyway.