CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
@cnlester.bsky.social
Multi-genre musician: voice/piano/composition/improvisation
Artistic Director Transpose
PhD on Barbara Strozzi - interdisciplinary work is life
’Trans Like Me’, ‘Furies,’ various critical intros, 2 current trans historical WIP
they/them
www.cnlester.com
Artistic Director Transpose
PhD on Barbara Strozzi - interdisciplinary work is life
’Trans Like Me’, ‘Furies,’ various critical intros, 2 current trans historical WIP
they/them
www.cnlester.com
Pinned
CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
@cnlester.bsky.social
· Jun 23
I'm working so hard on letting other people see me again after some very hard years of fighting the need to defensively hide.
It means so much that I can actually see myself in my new headshots.
It means so much that I can actually see myself in my new headshots.
London people: this Friday, I'll be with Trans Voices holding an evening for trans communities and our loved ones - using sound bath, breathwork, meditation and musical performance to connect, care, and make space for catharsis.
outsavvy.com/event/31390/...
Free tickets - please share
outsavvy.com/event/31390/...
Free tickets - please share
Remembrance in Sound Tickets - London - OutSavvy
To mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, TRANS VOICES invite you to a special one-off vocal sound bath and live performance. REMEMBRANCE IN SOUNDHere's how the night will go:– 7pm – Delivering our sig...
outsavvy.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:01 PM
London people: this Friday, I'll be with Trans Voices holding an evening for trans communities and our loved ones - using sound bath, breathwork, meditation and musical performance to connect, care, and make space for catharsis.
outsavvy.com/event/31390/...
Free tickets - please share
outsavvy.com/event/31390/...
Free tickets - please share
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
I really don’t think we can overstate the harm that the tech ethos of move fast and break things (followed by the unsaid “and then just move on”) has done beyond tech. Government, ngos, universities, public schools that have invited the folks who think like this in keep ending up gutted
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate.
www.cnbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I really don’t think we can overstate the harm that the tech ethos of move fast and break things (followed by the unsaid “and then just move on”) has done beyond tech. Government, ngos, universities, public schools that have invited the folks who think like this in keep ending up gutted
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
If you like an author's work, the best thing you can do is buy it. The second best thing you can do is ask your local library to buy it. Or, do both!
A reminder that the median book deal for a debut author in the UK is £7000, paid over 12-18 months. (from 2022 Society of Authors report). Some of your favourite writers are struggling. societyofauthors.org/2022/12/06/a....
A profession struggling to sustain itself - The Society of Authors
ALCS report on author incomes shows 60% drop in median incomes since 2006
societyofauthors.org
November 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
If you like an author's work, the best thing you can do is buy it. The second best thing you can do is ask your local library to buy it. Or, do both!
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
today is the feast of St Catharine of Alexandria, patron of female scholars, so enjoy this painting of her shutting down a senior prof who treated her paper's question time as an opportunity to hold an impromptu paper of his own
November 25, 2025 at 8:26 AM
today is the feast of St Catharine of Alexandria, patron of female scholars, so enjoy this painting of her shutting down a senior prof who treated her paper's question time as an opportunity to hold an impromptu paper of his own
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
November 25, 2025 at 12:20 AM
The great thing about being a bard is that returning to ancient times would actually improve your wages
Trying to decide on a career for when the economy crashes and we return to the ancient times. I'm leaning toward soothsayer but I'm also open to banditry
November 24, 2025 at 10:49 PM
The great thing about being a bard is that returning to ancient times would actually improve your wages
Torn between the hope of how many hate-mongering accounts are just bots and not people, and the despair of how many people fell into arguing with them anyway.
I don't know how to translate *don't be a fucking rube even if it feels righteous* into good activist language, but there it is.
I don't know how to translate *don't be a fucking rube even if it feels righteous* into good activist language, but there it is.
November 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Torn between the hope of how many hate-mongering accounts are just bots and not people, and the despair of how many people fell into arguing with them anyway.
I don't know how to translate *don't be a fucking rube even if it feels righteous* into good activist language, but there it is.
I don't know how to translate *don't be a fucking rube even if it feels righteous* into good activist language, but there it is.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Seeing how much of the right-wing on Twitter is just bot farms, kinda lays bare how much hate and hatred is a project that needs to be constantly maintained, a fire that needs to be fed all the time lest it go out for a moment, so much time, effort, and resources to keep people angry and hateful.
November 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Seeing how much of the right-wing on Twitter is just bot farms, kinda lays bare how much hate and hatred is a project that needs to be constantly maintained, a fire that needs to be fed all the time lest it go out for a moment, so much time, effort, and resources to keep people angry and hateful.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Regular tapping of the sign: please, please read ruthpearce.net/books/terf-w... by @notrightruth.bsky.social and amazing collaborators. Particularly if you haven't read the source materials. Particularly if you haven't lived as an out trans person through the the times of Raymond onwards...
TERF Wars
“A powerful, exciting and much-needed salvo in one of the most urgent battles against bigotry.” – Sandy Stone The emergence of trans-exclusionary movements raises many questions for feminism …
ruthpearce.net
November 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Regular tapping of the sign: please, please read ruthpearce.net/books/terf-w... by @notrightruth.bsky.social and amazing collaborators. Particularly if you haven't read the source materials. Particularly if you haven't lived as an out trans person through the the times of Raymond onwards...
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Best review of my career - feeling exhausted, beyond thankful, and convinced that the arts are one of the most important sites of culture change and political fight we have to use:
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
CN Lester’s Transpose: SUBVERSE review: 'An extraordinary piece'
Directed by Trans Like Me author and musician, CN Lester, Transpose: SUBVERSE at the Barbican Centre’s Pit is a genre-defying performance.
www.attitude.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Best review of my career - feeling exhausted, beyond thankful, and convinced that the arts are one of the most important sites of culture change and political fight we have to use:
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
Best review of my career - feeling exhausted, beyond thankful, and convinced that the arts are one of the most important sites of culture change and political fight we have to use:
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
CN Lester’s Transpose: SUBVERSE review: 'An extraordinary piece'
Directed by Trans Like Me author and musician, CN Lester, Transpose: SUBVERSE at the Barbican Centre’s Pit is a genre-defying performance.
www.attitude.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Best review of my career - feeling exhausted, beyond thankful, and convinced that the arts are one of the most important sites of culture change and political fight we have to use:
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/cn-l...
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
BREAKING: UK’s response to Covid was “too little too late”. Acting faster could have saved 23,000 lives in England according to the public inquiry.
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic, sexist, chaotic culture” in No10, where rule-breaking seriously undermined public confidence.
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic, sexist, chaotic culture” in No10, where rule-breaking seriously undermined public confidence.
November 20, 2025 at 4:07 PM
BREAKING: UK’s response to Covid was “too little too late”. Acting faster could have saved 23,000 lives in England according to the public inquiry.
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic, sexist, chaotic culture” in No10, where rule-breaking seriously undermined public confidence.
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic, sexist, chaotic culture” in No10, where rule-breaking seriously undermined public confidence.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
you will want to review the thread
November 23, 2025 at 6:28 PM
you will want to review the thread
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
new “you cannot kill me in a way that matters” just dropped
The damned in hell are not more powerful for the fact that the fires do not consume them; it is part and parcel of their torment.
November 23, 2025 at 6:26 PM
new “you cannot kill me in a way that matters” just dropped
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
a wolfenoot blessing (2025)
and this year's dog poem
katehorowitz.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Nothing about us, without us.
And with things like the puberty blocker trial, that doesn't simply mean involving trans adults - it means listening to young people and being led by their experience.
And with things like the puberty blocker trial, that doesn't simply mean involving trans adults - it means listening to young people and being led by their experience.
The trans community’s trust in the NHS’ new puberty blocker trial is low and I can’t help but wonder whether they could have prevented that by involving ANY trans people in its design or operation, and maybe not involving several people who have attended conferences of anti-LGBTQ hate groups
November 22, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Nothing about us, without us.
And with things like the puberty blocker trial, that doesn't simply mean involving trans adults - it means listening to young people and being led by their experience.
And with things like the puberty blocker trial, that doesn't simply mean involving trans adults - it means listening to young people and being led by their experience.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Cheers to the person who leaked the initial changes www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
In reversal, Coast Guard again classifies swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The new order came hours after The Post reported the service would instead classify such symbols as “potentially divisive” under guidelines set for release next month.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Cheers to the person who leaked the initial changes www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Regular tapping of the sign: please, please read ruthpearce.net/books/terf-w... by @notrightruth.bsky.social and amazing collaborators. Particularly if you haven't read the source materials. Particularly if you haven't lived as an out trans person through the the times of Raymond onwards...
TERF Wars
“A powerful, exciting and much-needed salvo in one of the most urgent battles against bigotry.” – Sandy Stone The emergence of trans-exclusionary movements raises many questions for feminism …
ruthpearce.net
November 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Regular tapping of the sign: please, please read ruthpearce.net/books/terf-w... by @notrightruth.bsky.social and amazing collaborators. Particularly if you haven't read the source materials. Particularly if you haven't lived as an out trans person through the the times of Raymond onwards...
Last couple of RTs: other UK-based people, how do you deal with the dooming dissonant bullshit of it all? The split between the excellence and ambitions of my professional worlds in the arts/publishing/research, and the seeming long suicide of politics/bureaucracy - it's just staggering
November 21, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Last couple of RTs: other UK-based people, how do you deal with the dooming dissonant bullshit of it all? The split between the excellence and ambitions of my professional worlds in the arts/publishing/research, and the seeming long suicide of politics/bureaucracy - it's just staggering
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
... The UK feels like a nation whose ruling elite are absolutely committed to their own decline and utterly in love with their own perpetual mismanagement. Or, at least, so proud, so unwilling to admit general mistakes, that they will de facto achieve those goals rather than every saying sorry.
November 21, 2025 at 7:38 AM
... The UK feels like a nation whose ruling elite are absolutely committed to their own decline and utterly in love with their own perpetual mismanagement. Or, at least, so proud, so unwilling to admit general mistakes, that they will de facto achieve those goals rather than every saying sorry.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
*Insert City* is serviced by 4 different bus companies, none of which honor the regional travel tickets of the other? Why would they.
I'll be out £40 a month if I don't swap my electric tariff to a company that didn't exist 3 months ago and won't exist in 5 years? Naturally.
I'll be out £40 a month if I don't swap my electric tariff to a company that didn't exist 3 months ago and won't exist in 5 years? Naturally.
November 21, 2025 at 10:52 AM
*Insert City* is serviced by 4 different bus companies, none of which honor the regional travel tickets of the other? Why would they.
I'll be out £40 a month if I don't swap my electric tariff to a company that didn't exist 3 months ago and won't exist in 5 years? Naturally.
I'll be out £40 a month if I don't swap my electric tariff to a company that didn't exist 3 months ago and won't exist in 5 years? Naturally.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
Train companies spend millions of pounds a year in arbitration fighting each other over who pays delay repay? Of course they do.
My water company has lied about dumping waste but the regulator isn't fining them? Of course not.
My water company has lied about dumping waste but the regulator isn't fining them? Of course not.
November 21, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Train companies spend millions of pounds a year in arbitration fighting each other over who pays delay repay? Of course they do.
My water company has lied about dumping waste but the regulator isn't fining them? Of course not.
My water company has lied about dumping waste but the regulator isn't fining them? Of course not.
Reposted by CN Lester 🏳️⚧️
The UK's "worst of both worlds" is most obvious to me as an outsider with experience in both the US and Switzerland when interacting with privatized services like rail.
Every tidbit learned about the Rube Goldberg machine of UK privatization is like peeking into madness itself
Every tidbit learned about the Rube Goldberg machine of UK privatization is like peeking into madness itself
November 21, 2025 at 10:48 AM
The UK's "worst of both worlds" is most obvious to me as an outsider with experience in both the US and Switzerland when interacting with privatized services like rail.
Every tidbit learned about the Rube Goldberg machine of UK privatization is like peeking into madness itself
Every tidbit learned about the Rube Goldberg machine of UK privatization is like peeking into madness itself