Nik Heynen
@nik-heynen.bsky.social
Geographer, University of Georgia | Spelman College | UGA's Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land, Sea and Agriculture | Shell to Shore | Birkley Heynen Environmental Foundation
https://linktr.ee/cornbreadheynen
https://linktr.ee/cornbreadheynen
Reposted by Nik Heynen
Apply now — Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis”, deadline 20 December 2025 antipodeonline.org/2025/11/13/a...
Apply now—Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis” - Antipode Online
Toronto, Ontario, Canadathe traditional territory of the Huron Wendat, the Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit June 1st – 5th, 2026 The contemporary global landscape is increasingly defined by w...
antipodeonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Apply now — Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis”, deadline 20 December 2025 antipodeonline.org/2025/11/13/a...
Snippet from the work we are doing on the Georgia coast.
Creating Living Shorelines in Georgia: Mission Possible
YouTube video by The Nature Conservancy
youtu.be
November 8, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Snippet from the work we are doing on the Georgia coast.
Reposted by Nik Heynen
Announcing Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice (IGJ), "Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis", Toronto, 1-5 June 2026 antipodeonline.org/institute-fo... -- submit your application by 20 December 2025
October 20, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Announcing Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice (IGJ), "Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis", Toronto, 1-5 June 2026 antipodeonline.org/institute-fo... -- submit your application by 20 December 2025
Reposted by Nik Heynen
Pls share: Applications open for Summer Institute in Economic Geography, Toronto, 5-10 July 2026
Featuring: Lars Coenen, Karen Lai, Devika Narayan and Stefan Ouma
Early career economic geographers (broadly defined) are welcome to apply. Stipends available. www.econgeog.net/Toronto2026
Featuring: Lars Coenen, Karen Lai, Devika Narayan and Stefan Ouma
Early career economic geographers (broadly defined) are welcome to apply. Stipends available. www.econgeog.net/Toronto2026
Toronto 2026 | Summer Institute in Economic Geography
www.econgeog.net
October 16, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Pls share: Applications open for Summer Institute in Economic Geography, Toronto, 5-10 July 2026
Featuring: Lars Coenen, Karen Lai, Devika Narayan and Stefan Ouma
Early career economic geographers (broadly defined) are welcome to apply. Stipends available. www.econgeog.net/Toronto2026
Featuring: Lars Coenen, Karen Lai, Devika Narayan and Stefan Ouma
Early career economic geographers (broadly defined) are welcome to apply. Stipends available. www.econgeog.net/Toronto2026
Taught Ntozake Shange’s “If I can Cook / You Know God Can” and “Bocas: A Daughter’s Geography” today. Felt worth sharing for folks who might not yet know this poem or haven’t read it in a while.
POEM: Bocas: A Daughter's Geography, Ntozake Shange, 1983 | Black Agenda Report
Ntozake Shange reminds us that whether we come from Haiti, Savannah, Luanda, or Palestine, we may not speak the same language, but “we fight the same old men.”
www.blackagendareport.com
October 2, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Taught Ntozake Shange’s “If I can Cook / You Know God Can” and “Bocas: A Daughter’s Geography” today. Felt worth sharing for folks who might not yet know this poem or haven’t read it in a while.
Reposted by Nik Heynen
“Fascism is not new. It wears a new dress, buys new boots—but it can only reproduce fear, denial, and the loss of will to fight.”
Toni Morrison’s timeless warning on fascism & censorship still rings out today.
inthesetimes.com/article/toni...
Toni Morrison’s timeless warning on fascism & censorship still rings out today.
inthesetimes.com/article/toni...
September 22, 2025 at 5:24 PM
“Fascism is not new. It wears a new dress, buys new boots—but it can only reproduce fear, denial, and the loss of will to fight.”
Toni Morrison’s timeless warning on fascism & censorship still rings out today.
inthesetimes.com/article/toni...
Toni Morrison’s timeless warning on fascism & censorship still rings out today.
inthesetimes.com/article/toni...
“Setting forms of identity, such as race, against class as fundamentally opposed bases of politics misrepresents how building working-class power works on the ground, both today and throughout history.”
The False Choice Between Identity Politics and Economic Populism
A left that ignores the differences within the working class will never build power.
hammerandhope.org
September 9, 2025 at 11:01 AM
“Setting forms of identity, such as race, against class as fundamentally opposed bases of politics misrepresents how building working-class power works on the ground, both today and throughout history.”
Proposals to “repair” or “restore” the planet therefore must answer the questions: Which ecosystems—and whose—will we repair and restore? Which—and whose—flourishings will we enable? What planet are we making, and for whom? @alybatt.bsky.social
The Value of Nature - Dissent Magazine
Why have some gifts of nature remained free?
www.dissentmagazine.org
August 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Proposals to “repair” or “restore” the planet therefore must answer the questions: Which ecosystems—and whose—will we repair and restore? Which—and whose—flourishings will we enable? What planet are we making, and for whom? @alybatt.bsky.social
In the tradition of “can’t stop, won’t stop”….
”In these cities, climate justice is more than a policy priority – it’s a survival strategy…. As federal funding evaporates, many cities are strengthening ties with frontline organizations — the local experts who’ve been leading the fight for decades.”
”In these cities, climate justice is more than a policy priority – it’s a survival strategy…. As federal funding evaporates, many cities are strengthening ties with frontline organizations — the local experts who’ve been leading the fight for decades.”
As Trump Guts Climate Justice Work, Coastal Cities Are Pushing Back
Federal support for climate resilience and environmental justice is collapsing. Cities across the country are stepping up.
www.rollingstone.com
August 10, 2025 at 9:15 PM
In the tradition of “can’t stop, won’t stop”….
”In these cities, climate justice is more than a policy priority – it’s a survival strategy…. As federal funding evaporates, many cities are strengthening ties with frontline organizations — the local experts who’ve been leading the fight for decades.”
”In these cities, climate justice is more than a policy priority – it’s a survival strategy…. As federal funding evaporates, many cities are strengthening ties with frontline organizations — the local experts who’ve been leading the fight for decades.”
“Memphis history is full of destructive alliances between local government and major industry, forcing working-class Black neighborhoods to accept ecological and corporal violence in order to boost the region's economy…But AI data centers also represent a troubling new frontier…..”
Musk’s Memphis xAI data center and the making of a ‘Digital Delta’ – Scalawag
The fight over xAI’s Colossus highlights a close alliance between Trump-style fascism and big tech in the South.
scalawagmagazine.org
August 8, 2025 at 7:36 PM
“Memphis history is full of destructive alliances between local government and major industry, forcing working-class Black neighborhoods to accept ecological and corporal violence in order to boost the region's economy…But AI data centers also represent a troubling new frontier…..”
“We’ve asked…the CEOs of banks like Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, insurance companies like Chubb and AIG — we’ve asked them to come to our communities, breathe the air, drink the water and get a taste of what we live every day. And they’ve refused to come. So we brought our community here to them.”
“Toxic Air”: Meet the Mother-Daughter Duo Fighting Pollution in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
We’re joined by a mother-daughter duo from Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” Roishetta and Kamea Ozane are part of a group of environmental activists on a national tour to confront the financial backers of ...
www.democracynow.org
August 4, 2025 at 8:39 PM
“We’ve asked…the CEOs of banks like Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, insurance companies like Chubb and AIG — we’ve asked them to come to our communities, breathe the air, drink the water and get a taste of what we live every day. And they’ve refused to come. So we brought our community here to them.”
"They call us terrorists. We are being terrorised! Our doors are kicked open at four in the morning and our families dragged off to prison, never to be seen again....We are the ones who suffer all these horrors. They are the terrorists."
#Apartheid then, Apartheid now.
#Apartheid then, Apartheid now.
Unearthed: An exclusive interview with Abdullah Ibrahim published by The Wire in 1984
Abdullah Ibrahim performs at Le Guess Who? 2022 on Sunday, 13 November.
leguesswho.com
August 2, 2025 at 8:51 PM
"They call us terrorists. We are being terrorised! Our doors are kicked open at four in the morning and our families dragged off to prison, never to be seen again....We are the ones who suffer all these horrors. They are the terrorists."
#Apartheid then, Apartheid now.
#Apartheid then, Apartheid now.
Important thinking going on at Clark Atlanta University this Fall. “Through A Du Boisian Lens: Informing Public Policy Through Empirical Social Research”.
July 31, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Important thinking going on at Clark Atlanta University this Fall. “Through A Du Boisian Lens: Informing Public Policy Through Empirical Social Research”.
Interesting #abolitionist connections to #energy geography here:
“….whaling’s role in funding abolition and providing economic opportunities for free Black Americans is undeniable. It was, in many ways, a bridge between the world of forced labor and the energy-driven economy of the modern age.”
“….whaling’s role in funding abolition and providing economic opportunities for free Black Americans is undeniable. It was, in many ways, a bridge between the world of forced labor and the energy-driven economy of the modern age.”
Abolition wasn’t fueled by just moral or economic concerns – the booming whaling industry also helped sink slavery
New research shows that when the whaling industry in the US produced more products, the proportion of slaves also declined in the 1700s and 1800s.
theconversation.com
July 31, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Interesting #abolitionist connections to #energy geography here:
“….whaling’s role in funding abolition and providing economic opportunities for free Black Americans is undeniable. It was, in many ways, a bridge between the world of forced labor and the energy-driven economy of the modern age.”
“….whaling’s role in funding abolition and providing economic opportunities for free Black Americans is undeniable. It was, in many ways, a bridge between the world of forced labor and the energy-driven economy of the modern age.”
Reposted by Nik Heynen
The Gullah Geechee, descendants from enslaved West Africans who were forced to work in the Carolina Lowcountry, are struggling to preserve sacred traditions as wealthy northerners swallow up valuable property around Hilton Head Island. nyti.ms/4mmAwdW
July 29, 2025 at 9:24 PM
The Gullah Geechee, descendants from enslaved West Africans who were forced to work in the Carolina Lowcountry, are struggling to preserve sacred traditions as wealthy northerners swallow up valuable property around Hilton Head Island. nyti.ms/4mmAwdW
Reposted by Nik Heynen
The Lowcountry Food Bank has provided culturally relevant foods like okra, squash and yams to the Gullah Geechee people in South Carolina for 20 years.
The US food bank keeping Gullah Geechee farming traditions alive: ‘Our local food is like no other’
www.theguardian.com
July 29, 2025 at 4:51 PM
The Lowcountry Food Bank has provided culturally relevant foods like okra, squash and yams to the Gullah Geechee people in South Carolina for 20 years.
Reposted by Nik Heynen
No effective abolitionist and certainly no enslaved person walked up to a total stranger expressing dismay over the passage of the fugitive slave act to say, “well this is a racist country, what did you expect.” People kept organizing and building hope through collective resistance and rebellion.
July 27, 2025 at 6:27 PM
No effective abolitionist and certainly no enslaved person walked up to a total stranger expressing dismay over the passage of the fugitive slave act to say, “well this is a racist country, what did you expect.” People kept organizing and building hope through collective resistance and rebellion.
Reposted by Nik Heynen
"How do different political blocs emerge in different places to influence carceral developments?" @lydiajean.bsky.social with Ruth WIlson Gilmore, @craiggilmore.bsky.social & Judah Schept in Part 1 of their new carceral geography series. inquest.org/uneven-e...
Uneven Expansions - Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Craig Gilmore, Judah Schept, & Lydia Pelot-Hobbs - Inquest
In the fight to abolish prisons, it’s vital to attend simultaneously to the scale of U.S. mass incarceration and how it manifests differently in specific regions.
inquest.org
July 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"How do different political blocs emerge in different places to influence carceral developments?" @lydiajean.bsky.social with Ruth WIlson Gilmore, @craiggilmore.bsky.social & Judah Schept in Part 1 of their new carceral geography series. inquest.org/uneven-e...
Reposted by Nik Heynen
I have a chapter in the New Planning Histories edited volume. Lots of great chapters covering a range of topics and cities!
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
July 21, 2025 at 2:20 PM
I have a chapter in the New Planning Histories edited volume. Lots of great chapters covering a range of topics and cities!
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
“The #South got something to say.”
André 3000
(very teachable)
“The term ‘the Dirty South’ developed as a means to define hip hop music emerging from the Southeastern United States and was quickly understood as an abbreviation for the history and development of Black culture in the South.”
André 3000
(very teachable)
“The term ‘the Dirty South’ developed as a means to define hip hop music emerging from the Southeastern United States and was quickly understood as an abbreviation for the history and development of Black culture in the South.”
The Dirty South
YouTube video by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
youtu.be
July 17, 2025 at 1:37 PM
“The #South got something to say.”
André 3000
(very teachable)
“The term ‘the Dirty South’ developed as a means to define hip hop music emerging from the Southeastern United States and was quickly understood as an abbreviation for the history and development of Black culture in the South.”
André 3000
(very teachable)
“The term ‘the Dirty South’ developed as a means to define hip hop music emerging from the Southeastern United States and was quickly understood as an abbreviation for the history and development of Black culture in the South.”
Toni Morrison (1981) for political ecologists: "I must confess, though, that I sometimes lose interest in the characters and get much more interested in the trees and animals....my editor says 'Would you stop this beauty business.' And I say 'Wait, wait until I tell you about these ants.'"
‘The Language Must Not Sweat’
A conversation with Toni Morrison.
newrepublic.com
July 16, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Toni Morrison (1981) for political ecologists: "I must confess, though, that I sometimes lose interest in the characters and get much more interested in the trees and animals....my editor says 'Would you stop this beauty business.' And I say 'Wait, wait until I tell you about these ants.'"
Reposted by Nik Heynen
“She wrote from her experience in a woman’s body and a dark skin, though never solely ‘as’ or ‘for.’ Sharply critical of chauvinism of all kinds, she was too aware of democracy’s failures to let herself embrace false integrations.”
Adrienne Rich on June Jordan, born on this day in 1936:
Adrienne Rich on June Jordan, born on this day in 1936:
The Witness Takes a Stand - Boston Review
June Jordan wrote from her experience in a woman’s body and a dark skin, though never solely “as” or “for.”
www.bostonreview.net
July 9, 2025 at 3:14 PM
“She wrote from her experience in a woman’s body and a dark skin, though never solely ‘as’ or ‘for.’ Sharply critical of chauvinism of all kinds, she was too aware of democracy’s failures to let herself embrace false integrations.”
Adrienne Rich on June Jordan, born on this day in 1936:
Adrienne Rich on June Jordan, born on this day in 1936:
Finally got to listen to @demonicgrounds.bsky.social on @blkstudies-podcast.bsky.social and it was great. Highly recommended. Also a good reminder that it’s time for me to re-read “The Bluest Eye” (and “Song of Solomon” too).
July 11, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Finally got to listen to @demonicgrounds.bsky.social on @blkstudies-podcast.bsky.social and it was great. Highly recommended. Also a good reminder that it’s time for me to re-read “The Bluest Eye” (and “Song of Solomon” too).
Thinking about existing policy to be used to enact #reparations? Not long ago @nikki-luke.bsky.social and I were asked to boil down the main points from a chapter we wrote for @nextcity.org. The result was this op-ed titled "How Cities Are Experimenting With Reparations in Urban Policy”.
How Cities Are Experimenting With Reparations in Urban Policy
Op-ed: Land banking in Atlanta and community solar in New Orleans offer a roadmap for embedding reparative politics in city policies.
nextcity.org
July 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Thinking about existing policy to be used to enact #reparations? Not long ago @nikki-luke.bsky.social and I were asked to boil down the main points from a chapter we wrote for @nextcity.org. The result was this op-ed titled "How Cities Are Experimenting With Reparations in Urban Policy”.
Seems like a good time to revisit Mab Segrest.
“Memoir of a Race Traitor” became a classic text of white antiracist practice. bell hooks called it a “courageous and daring [example of] the reality that political solidarity, forged in struggle, can exist across differences.”
“Memoir of a Race Traitor” became a classic text of white antiracist practice. bell hooks called it a “courageous and daring [example of] the reality that political solidarity, forged in struggle, can exist across differences.”
Mab Segrest | Memoir of a Race Traitor
Memoir of a Race Traitor: Fighting Racism in the American South
mabsegrest.com
June 28, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Seems like a good time to revisit Mab Segrest.
“Memoir of a Race Traitor” became a classic text of white antiracist practice. bell hooks called it a “courageous and daring [example of] the reality that political solidarity, forged in struggle, can exist across differences.”
“Memoir of a Race Traitor” became a classic text of white antiracist practice. bell hooks called it a “courageous and daring [example of] the reality that political solidarity, forged in struggle, can exist across differences.”