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Nikki Patin Book Release
April 11 @ 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Join us for the book release event for Nikki Patin’s new memoir, Working on Me. The event will include a reading and discussion with Denise Ruiz, owner and founder of The Honeycomb Network; a book signing; DJ set with Duane Powell; and light refreshments.
$10 general admission, $20 for admission + copy of the book
About the Book:
Working on Me chronicles the dysfunction and lore of a Black Russian Jewish interracial family on the far south side of Chicago, and the resulting trajectory of its prodigal child: multifaceted, multidisciplinary artist, performer, and sexual and domestic violence survivor Nikki Patin.
A meditation on the biomythography genre defined by Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Joy Harjo, Working on Me lyrically dances in and out of different voices and perspectives in order to get to something like the truth. Patin’s prowess as a poet and a songwriter is reflected in prose that is brutal, beautiful, and brave.
Working on Me is about what it means to work on oneself to heal and break patterns of harm and violence and what makes the healing necessary in the first place: all the forces beyond our control that work on us.
About the Author: 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 Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine and is founder and Executive Producer of Surviving the Mic, a survivor-led organization that uplifts the narratives and artistic excellence of writers and performers impacted by sexual harm and trauma.
