Episode Thirty-three

In this episode, I spoke with poet kiki nicole about their manuscript, Autobiography of the boi Venus which not published (yet!), their embroidery work, film work, and current interests.

kiki nicole is a Black, Queer, and Non-binary multimedia artist and poet based in Charlotte, North Carolina.. They’ve received invitations to fellowships such as Pink Door Writing Retreat, The Watering Hole, and Winter Tangerine. kiki nicole is currently a reader for Muzzle Magazine. They work to explore a Black, queer, femme & genderless universe that un/bodies, un/genders, & re/news, kiki hopes to lend a voice for the void in which Black femmes not only exist in plain view, but thrive.

from kiki’s Autobiography of the boi Venus, also using a still from ariella tai’s "she's not going to get more dead"

kiki’s site

kiki’s instagram

Donation link to support kiki

Media, artists, books, etc mentioned in this episode:

• Winter Tangerine’s fellowship program

• jayy dodd

• venus selenite 

• Tyrell Blacquemoss (TBN), who runs Cause Reign

• Find examples of kiki’s textile and multimedia work here

• ariella tai

• ariella tai’s "she's not going to get more dead"

• the first + the last, a experimental film/video and new media arts project for Black femmes, women, and non-men that kiki and ariella co-curate

• Lil Uzi Vert

• Katherine McKittrick's Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle

• “Stitches in Time” quilt exhibition, was not at the museum 

• M. Norbese Philips's Zong!

• Yoruba deity Oshun

• Yoruba deity Yemaya

• Yoruba deity Shango

• Roman deity Venus

• Gríma Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings

• Shakespeare’s Macbeth

• Toni Morrison’s Beloved

• Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and Kindred

• Naked and Afraid reality series

• Xandria Phillips's HULL

• adrienne marie brown's Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (Emergent Strategy)

• Big Thief’s "Not"

• Mitski

• Noname’s “Song 33”

• Noname Book Club

• Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau

• kiki's syllabus “Into a New Year.” kiki notes, “This is a syllabus of mine that I think ties a lot into what I was trying to convey near the end about preparing for a new world.”

• kiki’s pdf library “blk thots~” to decolonize your bookshelves!

The sound of waves breaking is Sylvester's “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).”

This episode was edited and social media managed by Mitchel Davidovitz.

Stay safe, everyone!!