Nikki Patin

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 sat on funding and review panels for Chicago Artists Coalition, ArtsWork Fund, Arts + Public Life, Threewalls, and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Arts and Special Events. She has been awarded grants from Loft Literary Arts Center, 3Arts, and The Network. She has managed budgets and grant reports as an executive nonprofit administrator for over two decades. 

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 and Executive Producer of Surviving the Mic, a survivor-led organization that curates performances and workshops for those impacted by sexual harm and trauma. She is an Elastic Arts Dark Matter Arts Resident, and the recipient of the 2024 Leadership Award from The Network. Patin’s memoir, Working on Me, was recently released on Vine Leaves Press.