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Nick Fesette

@nfesette.bsky.social
480 followers 647 following 41 posts

Associate prof of theater at Oxford College of Emory University. Abolition, critical prison studies, performance studies, drama. nickfesette.net

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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We're hiring a TT Assistant Prof in English in Oral Communication. The ideal candidate will also be able to teach first-year writing. Please share with anyone who might be a good fit! I'm chairing the search, so feel free to reach out with questions. apply.interfolio.com/193935
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amulya.bsky.social @amulya.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
My husband Drew wrote this at breakneck speed while moving cross-country and caring for an 8 month old, bc he felt it was necessary, ethically and politically, to correct the record. If you read Tyler Austin Harper's piece, I hope you'll read this.
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alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
THREAD. Contrary to what you are being told, 40 years of polling have established that shifting money away from police/prisons toward social services is one of the most popular public policies among *all* political demographics. But it's not just that, it goes way deeper.
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Hate Free Tennessee @hatefreetennessee.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Absolutely devastating sentences announced for Prairieland defendents today. We urge everyone to pay attention to these stories, and use this anger to fuel our resistance. Solidarity forever. "When will you be called a domestic terrorist, too?"
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DFW Support Committee @dfwsupportcommitt.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
please read this statement written by Benjamin "Champagne" Song and share as far and wide as you can: prairielanddefendants.com/defendant…
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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Grateful that my latest publication reflecting on the Phoenix Players Theatre Group, “Performing Black Feminist Abolition,” is in the volume Applied Theatre and Racial Justice edited by @lisabiggs.bsky.social and Eunice Ferreira. Check out this book! www.routledge.com/Applied-Thea...
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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
"I have cryogenically frozen my penis and filed it down to a fleshy icicle to replace any feminine roundness on my body with a masculine point."
mcsweeneys.net
At Long Last, I Have Maxximized My Looks
“At long last, I am a stone-cold seven, the kind of guy who could win a Jacob Elordi lookalike contest in a farm town with a population of 200.”
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
some things about becoming a parent are radicalizing in ways I expected - e.g being reminded viscerally how screwed we'd all be if childcare and other care work disappeared. but other things are radicalizing in ways I didn't - like experiencing constant spontaneous solidarity in ways big and small
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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
GUEST ROOM | What Will Save Us From Ourselves? Not Another Engineering Building
Professor Bruce Levitt argues that it is not engineering, but the arts that will ultimately save humanity from its most dangerous threat: itself.
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
After months of relentless rapid response in Minneapolis, members of Defend the 612 had a moment to breathe and reflect on the lessons they’ve learned, the grief they carry, and the citywide fellowship they hope will endure. The crisis is not over, and I’m grateful they made time to speak with me.
organizingmythoughts.org
“We Belong to Each Other Now”: Lessons from Minneapolis
“This extreme closeness, togetherness and intimacy — you cannot infiltrate your way into a space where you'll understand that," says May, a rapid responder in Minneapolis.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional! ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The Gravamen of the Disclosure

4. The gravamen of the disclosure is as follows: 
a. By memorandum dated May 12, 2025 (“the May 12 Memo”), Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter into certain people’s homes without a judicial warrant, consent, or an emergency.

b. Specifically, in the May 12 Memo, the Acting ICE Director authorized ICE Agents to rely on Form I-205 (which is not a judicial warrant) to enter the residence of an alien subject to a final order of deportation, without consent, including by “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”2c. While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 11/01/2026
📸 by Christopher Katsarov
A Border Patrol agent in a balaclava and green tactical uniform is falling backwards onto the icy pavement. His tailbone is hitting the ground, his boots are up in the air and his arms are splayed out in a V shape to break his fall. The photo looks to be taken from about 5ft from the agent
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
"You gonna murder someone else? You can't kill us all, Nazis."
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Another update on baby Chance, the child of Adriana Smith, a Georgia woman who was brain dead and turned into an incubator because of abortion bans. He’s still hospitalized and not going home anytime soon. What’s worse? His family are footing the bill. people.com/georgia-baby...
people.com
Son of Georgia Woman Who Gave Birth While Brain Dead Is ‘Underdeveloped,’ Still Hospitalized: ‘Not Coming Home Soon’
Adriana Smith was declared brain dead in February, but kept alive to deliver her baby in June due to Georgia’s strict ban on abortion. After nearly six months, Smith’s baby, Chance, is still hospitali...
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Prison Policy Initiative @prisonpolicy.org · 27/11/2025
Don’t worry! If your Thanksgiving dinner conversation turns from pie to prisons, or from cranberries to crime, we’ve got you covered. 🧵
Infographic with text: Data and facts to help you push back against 7 false claims about mass incarceration and crime
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 14/11/2025
A lot of people are going to walk away from the Ghislaine Maxwell coverage with the impression that our prison system isn’t punitive enough but I’d say it highlights how most everyone else is treated with *deliberate* cruelty.
prisonjournalismproject.org
Air Conditioning Is Coming to Texas Prisons, But Not Fast Enough
The plan would make it so that every living unit has air conditioning by 2032.
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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 05/11/2025
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Kathleen Belew @kathleenbelew.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
In my Chicago neighborhood this weekend: candy drive for kids who can't safely go out to trick or treat because of ICE; big visible letter-writing campaign at an outdoor block party; low-flying Blackhawk helicopter over a children's baseball game; whistle brigades everywhere. #chicagostrong
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tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Regarding the question “Well, what can I do?“ Ruth Wilson Gilmore said, “Go into something that already exists, and do that work towards the end of helping to tip it away from reinforcing the system towards weakening the system. That’s infiltrating. Or innovate. If something doesn't exist, make it."
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Hopkins Press @hopkinspress.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
NEW ISSUE OUT NOW American Quarterly Volume 77, Number 3, September 2025 tinyurl.com/3cp8rvax CONTRIBUTORS Jason Ruiz Joseph Keith Justine Frerichs Kendall Gordon Artz Joseph D. Martin Jason Ezell Nicholas Fesette Naomi Fair Eunhye Grace Lee Yi-hung Liu Bethany Swann
NEW ISSUE OUT NOW
American Quarterly
Volume 77, Number 3, September 2025

CONTRIBUTORS 
Jason Ruiz
Joseph Keith
Justine Frerichs
Kendall Gordon Artz
Joseph D. Martin
Jason Ezell
Nicholas Fesette
Naomi Fair
Eunhye Grace Lee
Yi-hung Liu
Bethany Swann
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TEN DEMANDS (The Abolitionists) @tendemands.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
The Ten Demands for Justice provides the roadmap to abolition — with each action chipping away at an inherently, intentionally unjust system. Read all 10 here, and print this PDF to bring to your city council members. drive.google.com/file/d/1MKG3... web.archive.org/web/20240622...
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alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
THREAD. Did you know that at about 1/3 of all stranger homicides in the U.S. are perpetrated by police? But there's something hidden here that is important to understand in this authoritarian moment.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
an experience I think about a lot: I was visiting a class in DC Jail shortly after Kim Kardashian visited and had brought in her camera team. I relayed critiques of her "performative", "virtue signalling" acts I had heard on the outside. the response was somewhere between a shrug and an eye roll
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 07/10/2025
According the victim's attorney, body camera footage captured the officer saying, “Do something, bitch,” before leaping out of the car and shooting her multiple times. Another officer asked, “Hey, what happened?” The first pointed to his camera, “Hey, don’t speak. You’re good.” trib.al/2RfPYXK
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Hannah Riley Fernandez @hannahcrileyy.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
thread: atlanta-area journalist Mario Guevara was arrested June 14 while livestreaming a protest. one of the charges? “pedestrian in the roadway” -- he stepped off a curb as police cleared the street. it’s on his livestream. he was wearing a press vest, and identified himself as media.
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HowlRound Theatre Commons @howlround.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Since her arrival at a small liberal arts college in Kentucky, Jayme Kilburn has grown its theatre program into a valued local cultural institution. By positioning theatre as a social service, she writes, she has cultivated a community that wants to show up. #theatre howlround.com/reshaping-ru...
howlround.com
Reshaping a Rural College Theatre Program
|Jayme KilburnSince her arrival at a small liberal arts college in Kentucky, Jayme Kilburn has grown its theatre program into a valued local cultural institution. By positioning theatre as a social se...
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Ta-Nehisi Coates: “What of the writers, the thinkers, and the pundits who cannot separate the great crime of Kirk’s death from the malignancy of his public life? Can they truly be so ignorant to the words of a man they have so rushed to memorialize? I don’t know.”
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...
thenation.com
Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning
The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn't a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
it’s early but it seems like maybe this is relevant again (wrote it last week fml)
theatlantic.com
The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another
The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.
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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
🧵
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
ATLANTA (AP) — Judge says he'll toss the racketeering case against 61 people tied to protests over a training center called “Cop City.”
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Claudia Stellar, PhD @claudiastellar.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
I just attended a Community Defense and ICE Watch training, & I’d encourage others to take one--bc no matter your expertise, unless you’ve been trained in this work, it’s easy to rely on assumptions. These trainings share proven strategies that actually minimize harm & strengthen community safety.
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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Check my review essay of recent titles in carceral studies by Orisanmi Burton, @robinmbernstein.bsky.social Holly Karibo @melanienewport.bsky.social and Doran Larson. Just published in American Quarterly. Many thanks to editor @pmckelveyphd.bsky.social
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Noe Montez @noemontez.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
We are all beholden to the cowardice of university general counsels, as well as the trustees and administrators who enable them
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Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 31/08/2025
If you say 'heteronormative' or 'unhoused person' or 'food insecurity' you're basically talking gibberish and nobody can understand you but if you say you can see inflammation in children at the airport and that vaccines lower IQ or that germs are a myth you get to fire all the scientists.
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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
😍😍😍 youtu.be/6MwgC9ew-vU?...
youtu.be
Stalin's Death Scene - The Death of Stalin (2018)
YouTube video by JurassicPark Theories
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WorkNowitzki @worknowitzki.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Among the insane things about this headline is considering the opposite. You think if elites were more outspoken about crime that Trump would have LESS opportunity to send in the military? Does that make even the tiniest bit of sense?
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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
I don't even know how to handle this part of the NYT editorial piece on why crime is falling. But I'd like to start with the most obvious thing: WHY IS THE EDITORIAL PAGE WRITING THIS AT ALL? "Why crime fell" is a DIFFICULT EMPIRICAL QUESTION. One that, you know, EXPERTS should be asked to answer.
Nonetheless, the protesters seemed to have an effect. Some officers, disheartened by public criticisms, quit their jobs. Police departments began reporting staffing shortages. Other officers stayed on the job but pulled back from enforcing the law. Sometimes, this pullback reflected genuine uncertainty among officers about how to do their jobs; other times, it came from a cynical desire to punish communities that police departments considered hostile.

Virtually all sides in the debate made mistakes during this intense period. Among the most damaging was the growing belief among Democratic officials that enforcing the law could be counterproductive when it involved low-level offenses such as public drug use, shoplifting and homeless encampments. Some Democrats believed enforcement of these laws disproportionately hurt minority groups and did not contribute much to public safety.

This argument never made much sense, especially given that polls showed strong support for basic law enforcement across racial and income groups. And the real-world results were miserable. Parts of San Francisco; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and other cities came to feel lawless, with people defecating and shooting up in public and store owners locking up items to reduce theft or simply closing their shops.
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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
1. This week, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, which revealed that both VIOLENT CRIME and PROPERTY CRIME reached their LOWEST LEVELS SINCE THE 1960s This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely. Here's why.
popular.info
Why you might not know that 2024 was America's safest year since the 1960s
An overwhelming majority of Americans, 64 percent, believe that crime increased across the country in 2024, according to a Gallup survey conducted late last year.
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Erin Fogg says Free Link @criminalerin.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
"Every major US city has a private foundation supporting police, with more than 250 nationwide. The foundations have been used to pay for surveillance technologies in cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles without being subject to public scrutiny, according to the report."
theguardian.com
Nearly 300 pages of Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ records released after first-of-its-kind ruling
Atlanta Police Foundation forced to disclose a year after a lawsuit, and could have implications for other cities
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Abolition : The Official Feed @abolition.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
go.bsky.app/PeQyU2C
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Nick Fesette @nfesette.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Extremely useful listen if you have anyone in your life who thinks that pandemic protocols “went too far”
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
"I can hardly ask the authors of junk-science papers and greedy legal consultants and sleazy official spokespeople to stop what they’re doing. But I can ask the rest of you to stop tolerating it." - statistician Andrew Gelman, also on Team Stop Lying statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/06/24/r...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
Reckless disregard for the truth coming from cops, doctors, and scientists: A rant. | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
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