October 23, 2026
Artists
KAREN FINLEY
Karen Finley is an artist, poet and performer. Born in Chicago she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her raw and transgressive performances have brought debate and controversy. Finley was one of the NEA 4 plaintiff's with the case before the Supreme Court, Finley v. NEA that challenged the decency provision in government grants to artists through the National Endowment for the Arts. Her performances and visual art have been presented internationally such as at The Barbican in London, Lincoln Center, The Steppenwolf, Museum of Modern Art, Bobino in Paris, and Art Basel amongst others. Finley is an ACLU ambassador. She is the author of ten books, including her most recent, COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco (City Lights 2025), Je n'étais pas censée être talentueuse: Écrits 1985-1994 (Éditions du Seuil 2025), Grabbing Pussy (OR Books 2018) and the 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment (City Lights 2015). A recipient of many awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is an Arts Professor in Art and Public Policy at New York University. Follow her on Instagram: @the_yam_mam
KASHIA KANCEY
Kashia Kancey is a Miami-born performer and dance-theater choreographer, who earned her BFA in Dance from New World School of the Arts. Kashia creates work surrounding themes of joy, nostalgia, feminine power, and identity through the black queer femme lens. Kashia has worked with Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, Adele Myers and Dancers, Peter London Global Dance Company, Abby Z and the New Utility, David Dorfman Dance, Urban Bush Women, and the Metropolitan Opera. She has also worked with artists like Donna Uchizono, Tendayi Kuumba, Annie-B Parson, Larry Keigwin, Valentina Bache, Cristina Moya-Palacios, and Symara Sarai. Kashia's work has been presented at The Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Sanctuary of the Arts, CreateART Performance, Triskelion Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church, New York Live Arts, and Ars Nova. Kashia has been a recipient of residencies such as the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency (2023), Baryshnikov Arts Center (2024), Triskelion Arts Fellowship (2025), and the Fresh Tracks Residency at New York Live Arts (2025). Most recently, Kashia was recognized as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” 2026 as a choreographer and performer. Currently based in Brooklyn, she is excited to continue making work where she can exist unapologetically and dream without any limits.
MARTITA ABRIL
Martita Abril (Pichu) is from the border city of Tijuana, México. She has collaborated with dance artists and companies including AUNTS, Lux Boreal, Kim Brandt, Yanira Castro, Yoshiko Chuma, Milka Djordevich, Tess Dworman, Daria Fain and Robert Kocik, Allyson Green, Abigail Levine, Mina Nishimura, Cori Olinghouse, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, Will Rawls, David Thomson, Larissa Velez-Jackson, and Cathy Weis. Martita was a performer in Simone Forti’s Dance Constructions, the Handles exhibition by Haegue Yang, and the Mirrors I & II piece by Joan Jonas at the Museum of Modern Art. She was part of the Fresh Tracks residency, the Dance and Process (DAP) artist in residency program at The Kitchen in partnership with Arts and Letters, and the Movement Research (MR) Artist-in-Residence Program, funded, in part, by Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Martita has been a recipient of international residencies in Vienna at Impulstanz, Ecuador, Latvia, Budapest, Prague which were supported by the GPS/Global Practice Sharing Program of MR with funding from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. She guides workshops in gardens for Spanish speaking families who recently arrived in NYC, through the iLAND (Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance) program in collaboration with El Puente. She is currently the Director of MR at the Judson Church Monday night series, she continues to mentor Immigrant artists as part of the NYFA Coaching program, and is a member of NYFA’s Artist Advisory Committee. Martita was a co-curator for Sundays On Broadway with Cathy Weis Projects in 2025 for their Spring and Fall season and a co-curator in residency at La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival. Martita, co-curates In/Between with Yanira Castro and Zahra Banyamerian, the annual immigrant artist group exhibition at New York Live Arts in partnership with NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program originally created in 2019 and the current Fresh Tracks residency Artistic Advisor.
