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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · 7d

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

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In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 16d

“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...

Illustrated cover with two women in front of a window, one thoughtful and the other with a defiant look. Text: "Toni Morrison on Fascism and Censorship."

Text describing June Jordan and Toni Morrison's involvement in a group of Black women writers in NYC, addressing oppression and liberation.

Illustration of a hand writing in a notebook, which appears to be on fire, set against a red background. The image is overlaid on fiery flames, conveying urgency and intensity. Text below discusses the erosion of public spaces and services, highlighting the struggle for freedom and resistance against silence.

Text titled "Peril" by Toni Morrison discusses authoritarian regimes suppressing dissenting writers through control, censorship, and fear. In the background, blurred barbed wire conveys restriction and oppression. The tone is critical and thought-provoking.

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · 29d

“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

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Aug 25

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

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Aug 10

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.”

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

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Aug 8

“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

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Aug 4

“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

Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Aug 2

"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.

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

Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 31

Important thinking going on at Clark Atlanta University this Fall. “Through A Du Boisian Lens: Informing Public Policy Through Empirical Social Research”.

Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 31

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.”

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

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · Jul 29

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

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · Jul 29

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

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Reposted by Nik Heynen

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · Jul 27

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.

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Inquest @inquest.bsky.social · Jul 23

"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

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Reposted by Nik Heynen

Akira Drake Rodriguez @akirarodriguez.bsky.social · Jul 21

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...

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 17

“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.”

The Dirty South

YouTube video by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

youtu.be

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 16

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

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Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · Jul 9

“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:

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

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 11

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).

Katherine McKittrick @demonicgrounds.bsky.social · Jun 13

I am on here…

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Katherine McKittrick - Department of Gender Studies and Canada Research Chair in Black Studies, Queen's University

Podcast Episode · The Black Studies Podcast · 2025-06-13 · 1h 1m

podcasts.apple.com

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 7

The chapter @nikki-luke.bsky.social and I wrote was titled "The case for reparations, urban political ecology, and the Black right to urban life” and was in "Turning Up the Heat" edited by Maria Kaika, Roger Keil (@rkeil.bsky.social), Tait Mandler and Yannis Tzaninis.

Manchester University Press - Turning up the heat

Turning up the heat - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Turning up the heat by Maria Kaika

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jul 7

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

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Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jun 28

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.”

Mab Segrest | Memoir of a Race Traitor

Memoir of a Race Traitor: Fighting Racism in the American South

mabsegrest.com

Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jun 22

“The lethality of many prisons, jails, and detention centers also lies in the cages' infrastructures, as many are built on toxic wastelands or sites that have already been destroyed by climate change, improper agricultural practices, and climate disasters.”

Abolition in the Era of Climate Change – Scalawag

As extreme temperatures and climate disasters rage on, incarcerated folks bear the brunt of the devastation.

scalawagmagazine.org

Nik Heynen @nik-heynen.bsky.social · Jun 10

#SapeloIsland’s #HoggHummock is one of the last #GullahGeechee island communities, but it's fighting for survival on multiple fronts. Rising #sea levels threaten to #flood the land, while development pressures risk changing the community's character and pushing out residents….
#AJC #SOLO #S2S

Can oyster shells save a sinking island off Georgia's coast?

YouTube video by Atlanta Journal-Constitution

youtu.be

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Reposted by Nik Heynen

Taylor Shelton @jtsphd.bsky.social · Jun 9

Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the United States.

But because the Atlanta Police Department claims that releasing the locations of these 60,000+ cameras will lead to terrorism, we’ve not been able to map their locations...

Until now. Read more 👇👇

City of Cameras

Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the United States. With 124.14 surveillance cameras per 1,000 people, we not only lead the country, we have more than twice as many cameras per capita as 2nd …

mappingatlanta.org

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