Join us as we celebrate the launch of Karen Finley's "Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco" published by City Lights.

First performed at sold-out theaters in New York, Finley processes the complexity of the pandemic in a vivid suite of prose poems.

She considers the collective coping strategies we used during isolation and loss, as well as the absurd new habits we acquired, from handwashing to wiping down groceries to decorative double masks and Zoom dance parties.

It's a testimonial to a deep belief in the power of words, compassion, and humor to transcend our astonishingly surreal realities. Free with RSVP (encouraged).

Karen Finley is an artist, performer, and poet. Born in Chicago, she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Finley was the named plaintiff for the Supreme Court case Finley v. NEA that challenged the decency provision in government grants to artists through the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been presented internationally such as the Barbican in London; Lincoln Center, New York City; Art Basel in Miami; and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among others. She is the author of ten books, including COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco (City Lights, March 2025) Grabbing Pussy (OR Books, 2018), the 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment (City Lights, 2015), and The Reality Shows (Feminist Press, 2011). A recipient of many awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is a professor in Art and Public Policy at New York University. She lives in Westchester County, New York