Alpha Fandoms
DC’s Vertigo Line (Sandman, Watchmen), Existential Horror & Sci-Fi Literature (Bradbury & Matheson)
20/20 Promise
As an American cis-woman of both Middle Eastern and European descent living in Denmark, Katherine lives with questions of culture, identity, appreciation, appropriation, perception, and privilege in an intersectional and complex way. Both “brownish” and also completely white-passing, this liminal space she inhabits, rife with blind spots that she does her best to remedy, means Katherine is always trying to learn and do better.
As a swarthy teenager post-9/11, the illusion of growing up in a cushioned world where American belonging felt secure, was suddenly and drastically altered. Largely informing her perspective, her ‘new minority’ status as a Lebanese-American created an intense drive to understand what that meant. In mere days she realized the gravity and responsibility of not being “just American”. As this doesn’t press everyone equally, she began a journey of educating and empathizing far beyond her present experience. As the late fantastic true crime writer Michelle McNamara says, “It’s chaos. Be kind,” She truly believes that empathy, intelligence, action, and art, will be the tools which save us all. That said, kindness doesn’t mean complacency. Privileged to occupy an intersection of vantage points, Katherine seeks to help those more at risk from the devastating forces of white patriarchy, wealth inequality, and violence. Her method, being the best investigator and researcher she can be: to shut up, listen, think, and amplify the voices of those unfairly silenced for too long, through whatever practical, protective, or supportive aid required.
Katherine Nohle
Writer. Dancer. Researcher and Teacher.
“I have been a word among letters. I have been a book in the origin.” – Taliesin the Bard
Katherine is an inventive and well-versed polymath and polyglot. She has spent a lifetime engrossed in different forms of visual arts, academia, language, literature, and media to produce her incisive, cross-genre works.
After 20 years of diverse dance training, Katherine’s an eclectic belly-dance instructor, performer, and choreographer. She spends her weeks traveling locally and internationally to learn and collaborate with masters, students, and teachers from a broad range of dance and movement disciplines. When home (or at least on the train) she spends hours with headphones on and notebook in hand, working on new and inventive classes for her students. She writes choreography for her own performances, the most recent of which being a metal, belly-dance fundraiser for her favorite, local metal bar. Her most recent achievement is attaining a white belt in the dance, physiology, and martial arts discipline NIA in Hamburg. What’s more, she’s completed a Flamenco intensive in Aarhus, Denmark. With a style that focuses on technical and narrative mastery, as well as the embodiment of character, this often leads to literal character embodiment through cosplay. Her cast list includes a dancing Baby Groot, Chell from Portal, Wonder Woman, Loki, a bio-punk “Creepy Nurse” of her own design, and a goddess of death. Many of the narratives and characters within her pieces draw upon years of avid sci-fi, fantasy, comics, crime, art-house, and horror immersion. As the mind behind the art and writing blog Dissecting Muses, she strategically arranges these influences to craft essays, poetry, fiction, and visual art.
Also, Katherine holds a B.A. in English language with a minor in secondary education. She’s always been fascinated by a wealth of academic subjects, specifically languages, linguistics, and the neurobiological processes of communication and comprehension. Aside from her work teaching English language-learners the finer points of labyrinthine English grammar, she spends her time engrossed in the construction, history, and literature of other languages. Living in Denmark has given her the rare opportunity to attend a Danish language school, where she earned high marks and several certifications in her adopted tongue. That said, her hyggeligt chats with Scandinavian metalhead buddies have introduced entirely different kinds of vocabulary! In order not to neglect the Romance languages, she’s currently brushing up on her Latin and Spanish roots by returning to the classroom.
Ultimately, Katherine curiously seeks what we all do: meaning, creativity, knowledge, and understanding (within and without).