Creative Response Justice, imagination and agency with Karen Finley via Zoom

Don’t miss the unique chance to work with the legendary performance artist, visual artist, and writer, Karen Finley as she helps you make the most, creatively, of this difficult time in quarantine. We are living in a very difficult time for this country and its people. Poetry in general and poetry of change, resistance, and protest are important to our moment.

How do we respond to events with our writing? How can we listen, witness and offer inspiration? How do we give voice? What can we offer with our writing? How do we use metaphor, rage and observation? This time of crisis – reveals a system already broken-the pandemic, leadership, policy, and the all too familiar brutality of racism. Yet, there is inspiration in the people taking to the streets standing up for justice and to make change. And we see the generosity and sacrifices made. Poetics is a space to interpret the shattered, process trauma, to bring voice, to be direct and nuanced, to assemble with language as a way to communicate and be heard. Here with we open to the genuine impulse. In this 2-session workshop – we will spend the first session with creative exercises and writing prompts. We will share our writing and Finley will guide individual direction to work on during the week. . For the second week, we will build on our concepts, a deepening discovery in our reflections. We will share with the rest of the group. The class though will be intuitive, allow for introverts, and is a space for integrity, specificity yet be open to uncertainty and unknowing. Through this process we will have intention of humanity. And in the gentle gesture of humanity with our writing, we begin.

NB: This is a two day class via Zoom: Saturday June 20th 12:30-4:30 & Sunday June 28th 12:30-2:30, special price of $165 Please register online at the link below. Zoom login instructions will be given with the registration confirmation email.
https://www.writerscenter.org/calendar/twodayfinley/

Karen Finley is a performance artist whose work has long provoked controversy and debate. She has performed at the Lincoln Center (NYC), the ICA (London), the Steppenwolf (Chicago), and the Bobino (Paris). Her art is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among other places. She has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obies, two Bessies, and a Ms. magazine Woman of the Year Award. Her books include Shock Treatment, Enough is Enough, Living It Up, A Different Kind Of Intimacy, George and Martha, The Reality Shows, and Grabbing Pussy. Finley is a professor in the department of Art and Public Policy at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.