Stuff I'm doing this summer: a poetry series, computer dance, and lots of weddings!

Experiments in Revision: Poetry

You know how it feels to write or make a first draft of something, then rework it until it shines like the top of Chrysler Building? You know how you kind of want to burn that first draft, so that no one will ever know the embarrassing wreckage of over-obvious, trite, and self indulgent ideas you have put down to the page only to be edited out? Well imagine that that first draft gets published online for everyone to read. That's the foundation of The Splinter Generation's Experiments in Revision series. Seeing as no one else was self-effacing and brave enough to undergo this grueling process they chose me! Over the months of June and July they are publishing a series of poems I have written, which culminate in one final (hopefully) awesome poem, which demonstrates that I did learn something after all. Apart from my own scattered first poem attempt I explore my Tanka, List Poem, and hybrid poem styles.  You can read the latest poem here. Keep your eyes on Splinter Generation, who will be posting the follow up poem and my process post over the summer. When I'm not writing poems I also write articles for Shamonica Magazine on music, tech, and design.

She Was a Computer: Play

She Was a Computer is a super funny tech-rich theater/dance piece from the masterful mind of Cara Rose DeFabio. I can't tell you what I'll be doing exactly, except to say that I think I am having a conversation WITH a computer on stage. Here is a bit on the piece: Drawing text from obsolete operational manuals, cyborg feminist theory and artificial intelligence programs, She Was A Computer looks for historical perspective on our current online identity issues. Record players, rotary telephones, and even the audience’s cell phones will be used for this interactive investigation of how technology affects our social selves. @ Counterpulse Theater in SF: JUL 20-22, FRI-SUN at 8PM, JUL 22 matinee at 2PM

 Lots of Weddings!

The funny thing about my thirtys is it seems like EVERYONE is getting married now and whats more, it seems like they all want to get married this year. Maybe its the whole Mayan Calendar thing or the Global Warming crisis, but whatever it is, it seems like people are eager to tie the knot before we say farewell to 2012. What does that mean for me? I get to drink free wine and make a lot of wedding mix tapes and DJ the receptions. Well the DJing thing is really just this weekend, so far, but there is some serious celebrating that is going to have to happen between now and December. Since not all my friends are invited to every wedding, I am DJing in the everyday world for the rest of you. Check out me and DJ Lady Bacon at Bacon/Styxx at St Mary's Pub every third Saturday of the month.

Nailzz

I'm also getting weirdly way into nail art. Inspired by this tutorial from Taylor Watson of Party Nails I took to painting my nails like a bat out of you know. Anyway, below are a few designs I have painted recently.

That pretty much sums up the fun stuff about my summer. So drop me a line, email, or Facebook if you want to connect!

The Long Walk: An Invitation to Explore A San Francisco Food Desert

Unequal access to healthy food based on income and specifically within low-income neighborhoods is a huge problem in America. 2.3 million Americans live over a mile away from a grocery store without access to a vehicle. This has created something known as a “Food Desert” where entire low-income neighborhoods are under-served in access to the basic human right of healthy, unprocessed food. People living in low-income areas spend significantly more time (19.5 minutes) traveling to the grocery store than the national average (15 minutes) according to the USDA. The USDA has also created this Food Desert Locator, albeit somewhat inaccurate as it does not take into account corner stores with fresh fruit and vegetables, it is still a step in the right direction.

To examine these inequalities I am creating a performance walk and interactive mapping project. “The Long Walk” will focus on the Hunters Point Food Desert that exists on local level, within the San Francisco community. This piece will combine a two and a half mile walk and shopping trip from the center from Hunter’s Point Hill to the Super Save Market and back, combined with an interactive web map recording the experience. At the market, which is the closest market to the center of Hunter's Point, I will purchase enough food for three days meals and carry the groceries back on foot.

You are invited to walk with me. 

The walk will act as metaphor for labor and duration. I want to express the labor and work it takes residents of low-income neighborhoods to access healthy food, that is so much more accessible to those that live in better serviced neighborhoods. While we walk I will document the  four mile walk with geo-located photography and journaling. I will also record the number of steps we take and create step markers every 500 steps on the map. Our pictures, thoughts and memories will be captured and mapped the published on the web.

Meet me at 12 noon on Sunday April 29th @ Kirkwood Ave @ Earl Street

The Long Walk starts at 12:20 and we should be back to the Hunters Point starting point by 3pm.

Bring comfortable shoes, a cellphone or camera and water.

For more info email niki@nikiselken.com  or call 415.692.1322

The Holidaze: Growing Up Together

This was my first family free Christmas. It was the first time I was not at my parents house, or my boyfriend's  family's house. I went to visit my family before Thanksgiving, but as soon as that was done, I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner with my boyfriend, in our home. It felt really grown up. There is something about hosting holidays yourself that speaks of a coming of age. We were not the only ones to do this, we had San Francisco friends hosting both Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners. I'm not sure why that matters so much, maybe it matters because it seems that we are all growing up together, creating homes and places for others to come to.

I belong to two expat communities: one from Santa Cruz and one from Wisconsin. The Santa Cruz folks are people I know from UCSC and their friends. We have a dynamic, lively, outrageous, kinky, generous, artistic, and loving community here in San Francisco and Oakland. I expect to know these people the rest of my life,  some of them I have known for ten years or more.

Team Wisconsin is a newer group of people I have stumbled into. Theirs is an honest, warm, decent, fun, and hilarious gang of game players, sports fans, dance parties, and awesomeness. I am grateful for those two communities and the way in which they have kept me on my toes, kept me happy, kept me in check, and kept me going throughout the somewhat difficult holiday season. Its hard to be away from my family, but now I have family in San Francisco too.

And besides that, there are the merry pranksters in my life; the people I can count on to put on stupid outfits and roam the streets with me during Santacon. They are people who will put on plays with me, who will DJ with me, who will come listen to the music I play, who will play music with me, who keep me from getting too serious.  Especially the folks from Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet, who always find the trouble and the fun in any situation.

I'm writing this to look on the bright side. To contemplate my good fortune for a minute. The cloud of holiday haze is lifting, maybe just in time for my boyfriend and I to face next year with a clear heads. 2011 had been one hell of a year, but there is one more hurdle to leap before the end. I just remembered that I am supposed to host all these crazy/lovely people for New Years Eve! Shit. I better get to work.

Winter Playlist and a New DJ Night!

This winter had me up to my ears in music. I've been creating playlists and organizing my vinyl and digital music collections. On the winter nights that start now at about 5:30 pm, I find it soothing to order and organize music. It may come from an OCD streak or just my Taurean sense of order and harmony, but either way its a fun way to pass the time.

It's lucky I have been doing all this music listening, becuse after going to visit my friend and bartender Visa at his new bar, St Mary's Pub, I offered to play some records for an upcoming Saturday night! Luckily, I was taken up on the offer by the well dressed, snazzy owner, Jimmy Driscol. So DJ Lady Bacon and I have put together one glorious night of music, Bacon/Styxx. It debuts on Saturday December 17th at 9pm.  Expect to hear bands like The Lightning seeds, Belly, Wild Nothing, and Joy Division. I would love to see you there!

I've also been writing for and designing a new online women's magazine with some talented friends called, Shamonica. It's one part culture rag, one part comic, and one part magic. We are still in the beta phase of the magazine, discovering our style and voice as we go. Expect a full launch of shamonica.com in early 2012. My most recent article features a winter playlist called: Music for Mystics. Listen online right now!