Nicky Click
When performer Nicky Click told me she decided to perform for Camp Trans this year instead of going to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, I wanted to tell the world. Here is a little about how cool Nicky Click is and why she has such radical trans politics.
OP: Tell us who or what Nicky Click is and what she is all about.
Nicky: The Nicky Click has had 300 metamorphoses. I use the sexism and oppressive situations I have had and deal with daily to create a platform to fuel my fire and bubble up the beakers of creativity and get the feelings and word out through performance. Nicky Click is made up of several characters: Nikki Slikk, Petunia Pie, and the newest Miss Cactus Rose. Mr. Owl is my fathers role and he lurks around most of my songs and is my co- producer. I am currently about to release my third album “Metoforically, of course!” in February on Foxie Records/ Crunks Not Dead Records.
It is a mixture of techno house remixes, classic Click heartbreak and story diary entries, mixed with a few cactus rose country songs.
OP: You played at Camp Trans this year. Why did you decide to play there instead of at Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival?
Nicky: I am an ally. My friends and lovers are trans folks. I want to openly make a statement that there is still so much sexism and discrimination around femininity, and this is just another aspect of that. I also want to pay homage to all the trans women, gender benders, etc, who have fought for the past fifteen years because of the hate and exclusion from this women’s festival. I want to make a statement that although I respect and am personally validated by women’s only space, we are at a place, I feel, culturally that we need to move to the fourth wave of feminism, where we can allow room for trans women. Which means shifting and confronting our own assumptions around gender, but not digress to a place where the marginalized can’t accept each other.
I’ve never been to Camp Trans before this year. I set up my femme paradise camping zone!
Oooh, artistic! Nicky Click.
I will be all over the Pacific Northwest in August, as well as the Femme Conference and Vancouver Film fest.
Here is my August tour schedule:
8/14 ReBar- Hardtimes! — Seattle
8/15 Le Voyeur — Olympia
8/17 Lick! — Vancouver
8/19 femina potens — SF
8/20 Risque Cabaret — Femme 2010 SF
8/23 Kadan Club — San Diego
8/25 LA
8/27 El Rio — SF
8/28 BLOWPONY — PDX
For more info on Nicky’s music and madness check out her website at http://www.nickyclick.com
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
way to be!
its native land.occupied,apartheid,what have you.first things first.who is deciding stuff ?.Go Nicky
That’s great. I love how you say Mich fest is adding to sexism around femininity. *claps*
Damn! I’m in Seattle and am just reading about your show and I can’t come. Bummer.
I can’t believe that women who fight for their rights don’t have enough understanding to stand behind our trans sisters who had to fight to be women in the first place. Right on Nicky
Feels like this is only half the story……. hospitality was give and hopefully not forgot….. please give love to the womyns who gave space, safety, and love, when it was most needed to our trans sisters, and brothers.
While it’s great that Nicky wants to work for Trans inclusion at MichFest via Camp Trans, it is untrue to state that she chose not to perform in order to be in solidarity. She performed in the Twighlight Zone during a party at MichFest.
Also, there is a lot of work for sisterhood and solidarity going on inside the gate at MichFest. There were many peaceful actions this summer for Trans inclusion and welcoming transsexual women.
Nicky, thank you for the comments about MichFest! The time has come for MichFest to join the ever increasing trans-inclusive 2010 world we live in. These women are living in the past. Even the male children who come with their mothers to MichFest are discriminated against.
This interview happened before we went to CT. I will be writing a longer, honest piece about my experience at CT. Nicky also had a complicated experience there, as I think about 90% of the attendees did. It was a rough year for everyone at CT and I think more and more will come out about what it was like for trans people on both sides of the road.
Nicky was super awesome! And so were you Rocco! Some super performers appeared at CT this year and were totally the highlight of camp. Dalice and Heidi Barton Stink deserve shoutouts too!