Finnegan the Poet

Finnegan the Poet (born March 17, 1969) is a bisexual [ [http://www.binetusa.org/faces.html faces of BiNet USA] ] queer American expatriate poet, writer and performance artist [ [http://www.nyabn.org/Pages/BiKnowledge/LiteraryLife.html New York Area Bisexual Network: A Literary Life] ] [ [http://www.io.com/~larrybob/qsw.html Queer Spoken Word Links] ] . Originally from New York City he currently resides in Amsterdam and performs at various venues in Europe. Though primarily an English language writer, Finnegan has produced two bilingual volumes of poetry, "Dunkelheit", (Darkness) which is written in both English and German and "De Verraderlijke Illusie van Keuze", (The Insidious Illusion of Choice) written in English and Dutch. Presently, Finnegan is working on a French and English volume of poetry

Finnegan has performed at the following New York venues: Nuyorican Poets Cafe [Nieves, Evelyn [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DD113EF93AA25752C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink "Again, Clubs for Poets to Read and Rage"] November 19, 1990 New York Times] , Knitting Factory, BAM Next Wave Festival [ [http://www.bobholman.com/resume.htm 'Dark Star Crew at BAM'] , on NPR's "All Things Considered", September 2, 1990] ] , CBGB, Nell's, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center [ [http://www.gaycenter.org/resources/archive/collection/full/C008.htm Gay and Lesbian Youth of NY Records 1970 to 1990] ] , West End Gate, ABC No Rio, Surf Reality and Collective Unconscious. He has also performed at venues in Buffalo, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne, Cologne, Berlin and Amsterdam, where he is currently a regular at the American Book Center. Finnegan is also a regular performer at Queeruption events including London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Barcelona.

Biography

Finnegan was born and raised in New York City in a family of Afro-Caribbean, Irish and Cuban descent. He graduated from Harvey Milk High School [Gross, Jane [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDE1F3BF932A15753C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink "AIDS Threat Brings New Turmoil for Gay Teen-Agers"] October 21, 1987 New York Times] . While in High School he formed a poetry collective with classmates and friends, which in 1989 became the nucleus of the poetry and performance group Dark Star Crew [Michael Musto "the Real New Kids On the Block" June 1992 Vanity Fair (print edition) ] .

After the Dark Star Crew disbanded in 1994, he went on to a solo career as a performance artist and poet, becoming a regular in New York City's downtown arts scene. During that time he also finished his first major collection "I'm Not Afraid of the Dark", which he completed in 2001, a volume of 101 poems.

At the end of 2002 Finnegan moved to Europe. He first settled in Koln where he wrote and performed in both English and German in various venues throughout Germany, and produced a body of work that in 2003 would become "Dunkelheit". After a visit of several months to Australia, Finnegan returned to Europe in 2004 and settled in Amsterdam, where he stayed in until 2006, In 2005 he produced his latest volume of work, "De Verraderlijke Illusie van Keuze" (The Insidious Illusion of Choice).

Themes

As Finnegan explains, "I deal readily with themes of Repulsion and Desire, Love and Hate, Truth and Lies, Power and Passion, and Light and Darkness."

Collections

*"Voices from The Other Side" (Dark Star Crew) Anthology (1990)
*"Voices from The Other Side, Volume 2" (Dark Star Crew) Anthology (1991)
*"Voices from the Other Side, Volume 3" (Dark Star Crew) Anthology (1993)

*"Volume" with Johnny Pavlou and Jonathan Walsh Anthology (1994)

*"I'm Not Afraid of the Dark" (2000)
*"Dunkelheit", (Darkness) English/German (2003)
*"De Verraderlijke Illusie van Keuze", (The Insidious Illusion of Choice) English/Dutch (2005)

ee also

*Art Stars

References

External links

* [http://www.livejournal.com/users/finneganthepoet Finnegan's World Travels]
* [http://www.finneganthepoet.com Finnegan the Poet]
* [http://members.lycos.nl/poetryisnotasickness/ Poetry Is Not a Sickness]
* [http://thenewtalentrecords.tripod.com/Pages/Finnegan/index.html Finnegan the Poet: Poetry Prose, Performance]
* [http://www.nyabn.org/Pages/BiKnowledge/LiteraryLife.html Working Writers:Finnegan the Poet]