Nikki Patin

About 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 25 years.As a queer, non-binary Black femme who is the single parent to a child with autism, Patin has developed and facilitated workshops, spoken on panels, delivered keynotes, and addressed audiences around the world. Her expertise on the historic and current impact of racism, sexual harm, homophobia, ableism, mass incarceration, fatphobia and sizeism has resulted in a unique methodology of writing and performance for healing trauma and shifting culture.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. A survivor of both sexual and domestic violence, Patin navigates complex PTSD and uses multiple creative practices as strategies for healing and revolution. In 2014, Patin addressed the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on the historic and current impact of sexual harm on Black girl and women in the U.S.Nikki Patin holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine, with pieces published by WBEZ, Move to End Violence, the Chicago Reader, Torch Literary Arts, on Public Newsroom, courtesy of City Bureau, and in the anthology, Carving Out Rights from the Prison Industrial Complex. She is the founder of Surviving the Mic, a survivor-led collective that curates performances and workshops for writers and performers who are also survivors of sexual harm. Patin’s debut memoir, Working on Me, is forthcoming from Vine Leaves Press in April 2024.Patin is an experienced non-profit executive who has sat on multiple funding panels and several boards, with expertise in community engagement, arts program curation and management, youth and community development, marketing, branding, design, and product development.Patin is currently the Interim CEO of Brave Space Alliance.

Experience

1. Interim Chief Executive Officer

   Brave Space Alliance

   Nov 2025 — Present

Education

• University of Southern Maine

  Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), Creative Writing (Non-fiction)

  2012 — 2015

• Columbia College Chicago

  TV Production

  1997 — 1999

• Thornton Fractional North High School

  High School Diploma, Honors

  1992 — 1996