Nia King is a creative powerhouse whose work expands many different forms of media. King is a podcast producer, writer, zinester and self-publisher, and most importantly an artist and activist. In 2014, King published the collection of interviews Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives and is currently in the process of compiling a second volume. I was able to talk to King about activism, artistic inspirations, and the ins and outs of self-publishing and grassroots marketing strategies.
EM: You describe yourself as an “art activist.” What does that mean to you? How do you see art and activism as linked?
NK: I identify as an “art activist” because I make art that is political, that deals with race, gender, queer and trans issues, class, disability, fatphobia and other forms of social oppression.
EM: Who/what has inspired your work?
NK: People who really inspire me include Jaime Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame. He is probably my favorite artist in the world. I love his visual style and also his storytelling. Some of the first representations I sought out of people like me (queer people of color) were in comics, and Love in Rockets was definitely one of the first comics to portray queer women of color in a way that felt very real and very relatable. Maggie and Hopey were so cool, and I wanted to live in their world.
I am also really inspired by Poly Styrene. She was a mixed-race (Black/white) woman and the lead singer of an early punk band called X-Ray Spex. As a woman of color who grew up in punk scenes and became politicized largely through punk, it was really important for me to be able to look back at the history of punk and see people like me—women of color—who were taking up space, sort of demanding a right to be weird, and making amazing art.
EM: What does DIY mean to you?
NK: DIY means you do everything yourself. At this point, there are some pieces of work I delegate— like graphic design for the cover of my book, or transcription for the podcast—but for the most part I do everything myself. I book the podcast guests, I research their work, I interview them, I spend hours and hours editing the interviews, I record the intro, I add the music, I upload the files to my website and I share them on social media. Other podcasts have studios and engineers and interns. I just have me, and a couple friends I pay to do transcription or occasionally help with editing.
Similarly, the money for the first book was all crowd-funded. It all came from individual donors who believed in the work I was doing. I think the largest gift was $250, but most of the donations were $5-$20. I have never received a grant for any of my work.
EM: You take a grassroots approach in terms of fundraising, marketing and creating your work. Why is the grassroots approach important for you? What obstacles have you faced? What advice do you have for others who want to utilize this approach?
NK: I don’t really see an alternative to doing things the grassroots way. My work is not mainstream enough for institutions or organizations to want to resource my work in a meaningful way, or at least that hasn’t happened yet.
It’s really hard for people of color to get published, especially queer and trans people of color, especially if their work is politically charged in a way that is challenging the status quo. I self-publish because my work is considered too “niche” or too “specific” by mainstream publishers, but also because I am too impatient and I feel like the work is too urgent to wait for institutions with access to resources to want to get behind it. Every time I start to work on a book proposal or a grant application to try and convince people that my work is important and worth funding, I feel like that’s time and energy I could be spending on the book or the podcast instead, so I tend not to get very far.
EM: Why did you decide to start doing interviews? What is your interview process?
NK: I wanted to pick the brains of artists I admired about how they got where they are. I wanted to get their advice and economic survival strategies and share them with others that might be hungry for the same information.
EM: What is the process of self-publishing like? What are the advantages and the biggest roadblocks?
NK: The advantage is complete creative control, including control over the publishing timeline. The other big advantage is that even though you pay more up front, you also get to keep more of the money because no publisher is taking a cut.
The downside is limited distribution and sometimes not enough energy to promote the book properly. If I had a publisher, they would get the book into stores for me. Instead, I have to personally ship or deliver books to every bookstore that carries my book, which is about 22 independent bookstores across the US and Canada.
Also, if I had a publisher it would be easier for me to get the book reviewed in publications, though I’ve actually had pretty decent luck with that on my own thanks to the support of women of color I know who work in media like Tina Vasquez, Cathy Camper, and Mey Rude.
If I had a press I would be able to give away more copies for free to people that want to review the book. Currently, if I don’t charge people for every individual copy of the book that’s printed then I lose money because I am paying for the copy out of pocket.
EM: What advice do you have for young people who want to write, build community and create their own art?
NK: Don’t give up. There are going to be a lot of times you feel like giving up and a lot of perfectly good reasons that it seems like you should, but the only way to gain success or any kind of recognition for art-making is to keep doing it. It’s ok to put it on the back-burner when you need to prioritize economic survival or things like taking care of partners, friends, and family, but try to come back to it if it’s really something you want to do.
EM: What do you have in store for book two?
NK: The first year of the podcast (which is what the first book is based on) was fairly heavily Black- and Latin@-focused. In the second year, I’ve tried to include more East Asian, South Asian, Arab and Indigenous artists. The second book is also more focused on women and femmes, particularly trans women.
The themes that are emerging from the interviews are also different. Themes I’m noticing in the second book include bisexuality, religion, and punk rock. For example, Juba Kalamka talks about biphobia in gay male communities and transphobia in queer hip-hop. Vivek Shraya talks about how Hinduism offered spaces where she was celebrated for her femme qualities, which she was punished for almost everywhere else. Martin Sorrondeguy talks about why he still sees punk as valuable, now that’s he’s been part of punk scenes and documenting punk culture across continents for several decades. He also talks about the importance of protest music for his family as young Uruguayan exiles in Chicago.
If the first book was QTPOC 101, this is QTPOC 102. The conversations go deeper and they’re really rich and layered. I hope people will enjoy the second book. I think it will definitely give readers something to chew on intellectually. I hope that it adds nuance to their understanding of the ways oppression works.