Welcome to the hamo at Palais de Tokyo to participate to the launch of the first French translation of the writings of Karen Finley (Le Seuil, Fiction & Cie)

Writer Chloé Delaume initiated the first French publication of the writings of Karen Finley, a central figure in the Lower East Side art scene of the 1980s, who made her mark with her radical performances of provocative and politically loaded poetry, in which she explored the themes of gender, sex, violence, and power with unprecedented frontality. A musician, poet, artist, and performer, she starred in No Wave films and shot her own videos alongside numerous performances at the Kitchen, Franklin Furnace, and in downtown New York clubs. She was one of the artists who opposed state censorship by filing a complaint with the Supreme Court against the puritanical rulings of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990, sparking an intense debate on freedom of expression in art.

I Wasn’t Supposed to Be Talented is a collection of her writings between 1985 and 1994, translated by Malik Boutebal.