Book Launch & Signing: Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco (City Lights Books, 2025)

After graduating from art school in San Francisco in 1982, then unknown performance artist Karen Finley sent letters out to a number of alternative spaces to set up her first coast-to-coast tour as a professional. Thanks to the quick response of then performance art curator Tony Billoni, Hallwalls forever has the distinction of being the first space in the country to present her, in the 4th-floor gallery at 700 Main Street on November 10, 1982.

https://hallwalls.org/artists/F/3-karen-finley.html

Since then, a succession of Hallwalls curators (Billoni, Steve Gallagher, Ron Ehmke, and Ed Cardoni) have presented nearly every one of her performance works, the texts of most of which have been published in book form. Most recently (October 2023) Hallwalls presented Karen's post-pandemic masterpiece with the long title—Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco—which has just been published in book form by City Lights Books.

Thanks to a national book tour sponsored by City Lights Books in San Francisco and Talking Leaves…Books here in Buffalo, Hallwalls is pleased to welcome Karen back in person to read from and sign copies of the new book (and others).

If you saw any of the three live performances two years ago, you'll definitely want to get a copy of the new book signed to you personally by Karen, and if you missed it, even more so!