What I Do

Featured in The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, on WBEZ, WTTW, FoxSoul, and on international television and radio, Nikki Patin has been writing, performing, educating, and advocating for over two decades. She has taught workshops on performance poetry, body image, sexual assault prevention and LGBT issues for over 20 years. Patin has performed, taught and spoken at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Cook County Jail, Rikers Island prison, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, EXPO Chicago, Black Artists Retreat, Brooklyn Museum, and the National Black Theater in Harlem and many other spaces throughout the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. In 2014, Patin addressed the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of Black women survivors of sexual violence in the U.S. Nikki Patin holds an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of Southern Maine and is founder of Surviving the Mic, a survivor-led organization that curates performances and workshops for survivors of trauma, as well as the Executive Director of Calling All Crows, which connects the music industry and music fans to feminist and social justice movements. Patin’s memoir, Working on Me, is forthcoming from Vine Leaves Press in April, 2024. View all posts by Nikki Patin