Karen Finley has presented performance art, usually monologues, in venues from theatres to nightclubs. Her performances have included such iconoclastic elements as smearing her body with food. Her work includes We Keep Our Victims Ready, The Return of the Chocolate-Smeared Woman, and Shut Up and Love Me. She won an Obie Award for her stage piece An American Chestnut. Her books include A Different Kind of Intimacy: The Collected Writings of Karen Finley.

An excerpt from Steve Capra's interview with Ms. Finley
in Theater Voices

SC: When Jesse Helms and the other rightists reacted to your work, did they understand your political points?

KF: No. The only way they could deal with me was through sexual violence. I entered a relationship with Helms which became an abusive relationship. They could only deal with me personally, even though it was public.