karen Krolak is a free range collaborator based in Boston, MA who lives with a rare chronic health condition. She is the co-founder/Artistic Director of Monkeyhouse and the creator of the Dictionary of Negative Space. Her embodied explorations weave in elements of text, textiles, choreography or story telling to spark dialogues that reverberate between communities. Her idiosyncratic pieces have been presented abroad in Italy,  the UK, Canada, and S. Korea, as well as nationally and throughout New England. For over twenty years, she has collaborated with Nicole Harris on a diverse range of dance and other media projects. In addition, Krolak frequently collaborates with Jason Ries, Jeremy Wechsler, Kwaq7aj', Ralph Farris, Eric John Meyer, Anne Howarth, Kim Holman, Cassandre Charles, Adria Arch, Scott McPheeters, and Barry Duncan.

Much of her recent work has centered around the theme of finding physical poetry in imperfect bodies and around mourning. Krolak’s quirky knitting pattern/personal essay/instruction based art piece, Slippers to Soothe Your Emergency Room Blues, won the First Annual Feels Blind Literary DIY Prize and has been presented in at the Institute for Conceptual Studies online and at the CICA Museum in Gimpo, Korea. Her essay, Unexpected Artist in Residency in a Hospital, and her DIY hospital robe pattern were recently published in Piney Woods Atlas’s Midwest edition. She is currently directing and costume designing a new play by Eric John Meyer that has been supported through residencies at the Lark and at Dutch Kills Theater in New York City.