nicky 

Many of you heard me talk about nicky (she/her/they/them pronouns) and also may have read their posts as a guest in Karinaland River. Almost seven years ago, in April of 2017, I met them through a friend, me freshly widowed for only six months. Time to celebrate now. They started to help me once a week with various office tasks, for example archiving my late husband’s sociology notes, or archiving my own theater work. Then nicky started to enjoy helping me with garden work. With many other tasks (blog set-up, etc.), occasions like Listening Salons, or celebrations, they are always bringing their sensitive, thoughtful, curious, and supportive energy. We keep discussing our lives and visions as artists, comparing notes, questioning American culture. We laugh and cry. In 2020, once I had done enough research for my concept & design of the Garage Memorial Mural (to bring those murdered by police and the state to be remembered as full individuals with lives, families and passions), and was finally ready to invite friends to paint, nicky was right there, bringing canvas, brushes and her skills. We measured, painted calligraphy, as well as happily greeting curious dogs and passers-by. Seven years – it has been marvelous to witness nicky over time blooming with their art, teaching, activism, organizing, community building. And getting to meet some of her friends and family, too. I am so grateful for her presence in my life. With Emma being 32 years old, nicky 34 years, and me 70 years, we are dancing the intimate waltz between generations, where life experience meets youthful energies. Our spirits intermingle and inspire new possibilities in all directions….

Always I enjoy taking stills of flowers – what a beautiful Being!

 

Here is nicky in her own words:

 

Hi, my name is nicky – she/her/they/them pronouns! I am an artist, collaborator, and friend of Karina, Emma, & the garden! I am grateful for the time we spend together as this garden has been a grounding refuge through these deeply transformational times – in the years before the pandemic and through it, navigating personal and collective loss & grief, witnessing & experiencing ongoing record breaking climate emergencies, and now as we witness the genocide of Palestinians. The garden is a place where we talk about politics, art, life, death, we tell stories, we remember, listen, imagine, process together, and ask each other questions. We are challenged here and we grow. This is one of the communities that nurtures my heart, mind, and spirit so that I am able to show up embodied in my other communities.

 

I often describe myself as connective tissue. As a sibling, an artist, a dancer, I'm a community worker & cultural producer. I organize events that nurture relationships and solidarity through cross pollination of people, communities, purpose, and ideas. Since October, this has increased in solidarity work with Palestinians, kasamas, and allies in the Bay Area, connecting activists & artists, supporting organizing efforts, showing up at protests in the streets or intentionally disrupting public spaces & politicians to call for the end of the siege on Gaza, and will continue until Palestine is liberated. I paint, draw, write poetry, and tell the stories of my ancestors who immigrated from the Philippines. I am inspired & informed by my art, my lineages, and my experiences - and in return they inspire my imagination, dreams, and the futures I aim to help build. I love to learn and imagine, to listen to stories, to empathize, to draw connections. This is nurtured by my Liberation Spring community, a decolonial freedom school that I've been part of just as long as I've known Karina & the garden. This is another part of my mycelium that grounds me and inspires the work I do.

Nicky visiting last December for exchanging gifts

and my beet winter vegetable stew which fits the color palette

 – not always do i get to see her in such fancy colorful clothes

https://karinalandriver.blogspot.com/search/label/nicky