Karen Finley book release- Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco

Karen Finley
This event will be held onsite at City Lights. It will also be broadcast on zoom. To experience the virtual part of the event you will need a device that can access the internet and registration is required.
City Lights celebrates the publication of Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco – By Karen Finley – Published by City Lights Books

COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco meditates on the extraordinary time of loss, isolation, and bizarre rituals of the Covid era and its aftermath.
First performed at sold-out theaters in New York, where the Village Voice compared Karen Finley to Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, this vivid suite of poems invokes a maelstrom of feelings that will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page. In COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco, Finley processes the pandemic in allits complexity–from the collective coping strategies during isolation and loss to the absurd new habits we acquired, from handwashing to wiping downgroceries to decorative double masks and zoom dance parties.
The New YorkCity hotspot echoes an earlier AIDS era; that rage and sorrow remain partof the City’s DNA. During COVID, tragic historic events such as the police murder of George Floyd and the continued brutality on Black and brown bodies, challenged the nation. Revolution took to the streets. The reversal of Roe v Wade and the criminalizing of trans peoples’ bodies, mental healthrealities, houselessness, essential workers’ rights, and social isolation brought desperate conditions. Finley reflects on these traumas, asking how do we employ love despite the hate, to encourage humanity despite proliferating violence?
On the fifth anniversary of the pandemic lockdown, COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco looks back while also looking forward, offering art as salvation, and the deep belief in the powerof words, compassion, and humor to transcend the harsh realities of today.
Karen Finley is an artist, performer, and poet. Born in Chicago, shereceived 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 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 YorkUniversity. She lives in Westchester County, New York.