Karen Finley Reflects on the Start of the AIDS Crisis in
WRITTEN IN THE SAND
Performances Begin October 2 at Baruch Performing Arts Center
"Ms. Finley hasn’t lost the power to disturb.”
-- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Karen Finley, a name synonymous with performance art, will present the New York premiere of her new work WRITTEN IN THE SAND at Baruch Performing Arts Center on beginning October 2. WRITTEN IN THE SAND includes performance pieces and writings on AIDS Finley wrote between 1983 and 1994, many performed publicly for the first time. Opening night, October 2, is a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Tickets for opening night are $40 and include a champagne afterparty with Ms. Finley; the remaining dates are $30 (students and seniors $20 at the box office only). Tickets are available online at www.SpinCycleNYC.com and by phone at 212-352-3101.
WRITTEN IN THE SAND includes some of Karen Finley’s most searing work on the subject of AIDS, written at a time when medical treatment was ineffective and when she was losing her friends to the disease on a continual basis. Some pieces are excerpted from her earlier shows of the era; others are based on writing she did at the time that has never been published or performed. Interspersing the Finley pieces are musical selections originally written or performed by musicians who died of AIDS during this period, performed by jazz artist Paul Nebenzahl.
Since her first performances in the early 1980's, KAREN FINLEY has become synonymous with performance art. She is the recipient of two Obies, two Bessies, and multiple grants from the NEA and NYSCA. She has toured internationally with pieces including Make Love, George & Martha, The American Chestnut, A Certain Level of Denial and The Return of The Chocolate Smeared Woman. In 1990, Finley became an unwilling symbol for the NEA when she, along with Tim Miller, Holly Hughes & John Fleck, sued the NEA for withdrawing grants on the grounds of indecency. She last appeared at Baruch Performing Arts Center last November in The Jackie Look, in which she played Jackie Kennedy on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.
Baruch Performing Arts Center is celebrating its tenth anniversary this season. The performing arts center is under the aegis of The Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. This year also marks the fifteenth anniversary of The Weissman School.
WRITTEN IN SAND runs October 2-23, Thursdays at 8 PM. The Baruch Performing Arts Center is located on the campus of Baruch College in Manhattan on East 25th Street between Lexington & 3rd Aves. Tickets are $30 ($40 for the opening night Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit), available online at www.SpinCycleNYC.com, by phone at 646-312-5073, or in person at the box office at 55 Lexington Ave. (enter E. 25th St. between Lexington & 3rd Aves.).
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