Nick Fesette
@nfesette.bsky.social
Associate prof of theater at Oxford College of Emory University. Abolition, critical prison studies, performance studies, drama. http://nickfesette.net/
Pinned
Nick Fesette
@nfesette.bsky.social
· Sep 6
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
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.
November 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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.
Reposted by Nick Fesette
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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
October 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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."
October 22, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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."
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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
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
September 11, 2025 at 1:05 PM
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
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
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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...
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...
October 14, 2025 at 2:25 PM
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...
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...
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.
October 12, 2025 at 4:56 PM
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.
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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
anyone else notice that the west took a turn for the worse once the concept of signaling one’s own social virtue became derogatory, almost as if cynically deriding all displays of charity and good will is indicative of a deeply cynical and nihilistic society capable of collaborating in genocide
October 11, 2025 at 6:11 PM
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
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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
trib.al/2RfPYXK
October 7, 2025 at 10:40 PM
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
trib.al/2RfPYXK
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.
October 3, 2025 at 7:42 PM
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.
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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-ru...
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...
howlround.com
September 29, 2025 at 1:43 PM
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-ru...
Reposted by Nick Fesette
The thing everyone can do right now is to find your lane if you don't already have one and work that lane diligently and with commitment.
September 19, 2025 at 1:30 PM
The thing everyone can do right now is to find your lane if you don't already have one and work that lane diligently and with commitment.
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.”
September 16, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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.”
Reposted by Nick Fesette
I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...
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
www.thenation.com
September 12, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...
Reposted by Nick Fesette
it’s early but it seems like maybe this is relevant again (wrote it last week fml)
September 12, 2025 at 2:37 PM
it’s early but it seems like maybe this is relevant again (wrote it last week fml)
🧵
oh no are they calling for martial law? what, like Trump sending in national guardsmen to major cities to take over policing? that kind of martial law? Oh MY GOD
September 11, 2025 at 7:19 PM
🧵
Reposted by Nick Fesette
ATLANTA (AP) — Judge says he'll toss the racketeering case against 61 people tied to protests over a training center called “Cop City.”
September 9, 2025 at 5:09 PM
ATLANTA (AP) — Judge says he'll toss the racketeering case against 61 people tied to protests over a training center called “Cop City.”
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.
September 7, 2025 at 8:34 PM
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.
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
September 6, 2025 at 5:47 PM
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
Reposted by Nick Fesette
We are all beholden to the cowardice of university general counsels, as well as the trustees and administrators who enable them
September 3, 2025 at 7:41 PM
We are all beholden to the cowardice of university general counsels, as well as the trustees and administrators who enable them
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.
August 31, 2025 at 3:46 PM
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.
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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?
As usual the problem is people incorrectly describing the authoritarianism, not the authoritarianism itself.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
August 16, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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?
Reposted by Nick Fesette
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.
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.
August 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
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.
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.