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Alanna Cotch

@alannak.bsky.social

Community college professor of composition and America lit. Reader of good novels. Chicagolandian by way of Minnesota.

298 Followers  |  562 Following  |  195 Posts  |  Joined: 02.10.2023
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Posts by Alanna Cotch (@alannak.bsky.social)

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As I understand things, now we're allowed to ask about the redacted and suppressed Epstein Files, right?

05.03.2026 18:43 β€” πŸ‘ 204    πŸ” 45    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 3

First close the application. Then shut down your computer. Then unplug it from the wall. Pick it up, put it in your car, drive/walk east, throw it in Lake Michigan

05.03.2026 18:19 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Hi. I'm the oldest of five. Somewhere this very moment, someone isn't following a rule that I always feel like I have to follow--and making me feel like a sucker as a result.

02.03.2026 01:07 β€” πŸ‘ 53    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this

22.06.2025 00:47 β€” πŸ‘ 63726    πŸ” 14372    πŸ’¬ 813    πŸ“Œ 584

β€œHow many of these gentle people have I helped to kill just by paying my taxes?" June Jordan, 1984

28.02.2026 14:21 β€” πŸ‘ 2341    πŸ” 910    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 8

Trans rights are human rights.

26.02.2026 03:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The Epstein files document what many women researchers have long experienced but rarely seen laid bare so starkly: exclusion operating behind closed doors, shaping who gets funded, invited, mentored, and taken seriously. How many of these networks, norms, and gatekeepers remain in place?

23.02.2026 23:35 β€” πŸ‘ 4284    πŸ” 1767    πŸ’¬ 42    πŸ“Œ 52

I don't know much but isn't that traveling?

22.02.2026 03:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

You need ID to pet your neighbor’s dog. You need ID to mumble lyrics while waiting for a bus. You need ID to put mayo on French fries. You need ID to quote Anchorman to your parents. You need ID to do the electric slide. You need ID to go back and wander the paths of Mirkwood. So the President thi

19.02.2026 03:26 β€” πŸ‘ 1138    πŸ” 142    πŸ’¬ 73    πŸ“Œ 6
A graphic in pink, blue, and green that illustrates how recent many Black History events are to the current day -- ranging from 1619 to 2024.

A graphic in pink, blue, and green that illustrates how recent many Black History events are to the current day -- ranging from 1619 to 2024.

I'm sure we've all seen the graphic that lays out the United States ' relationship with slavery. It's good, but I never thought it was quite impactful enough. So I made my own.

I've used a few key events, including my birth, to highlight how recent these events are in history.

1 square = 1 year.

16.02.2026 18:12 β€” πŸ‘ 2519    πŸ” 953    πŸ’¬ 45    πŸ“Œ 17
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There will be people who are understandably desperate to hear this, but it's important to be clear-eyed about Rubio himself and what the Trump administration is doing. 🧡

14.02.2026 12:56 β€” πŸ‘ 389    πŸ” 167    πŸ’¬ 25    πŸ“Œ 35

Community college comp/lit professor here. Hard agree.

14.02.2026 22:38 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
photo of Pam Bondi testifying in the foreground as a group of 7 women and 1 men raise their hands

photo of Pam Bondi testifying in the foreground as a group of 7 women and 1 men raise their hands

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

11.02.2026 17:15 β€” πŸ‘ 40535    πŸ” 13809    πŸ’¬ 1373    πŸ“Œ 892

Invoking wealthy class solidarity to excuse sex crimes against children is sorta the Epstein Class in a nutshell

11.02.2026 16:48 β€” πŸ‘ 9165    πŸ” 2558    πŸ’¬ 206    πŸ“Œ 73

Next time somebody tries to get me to justify the existence of the humanities, I’ll just point out how for the past two Super Bowls we’ve all jumped online and engaged in collective semiotics and hermeneutics of the half-time show as text.

09.02.2026 03:36 β€” πŸ‘ 4746    πŸ” 1119    πŸ’¬ 39    πŸ“Œ 41

Y’all, it was a beautiful performance full of love, joy, and defiance. And I really don’t care what bigots say about it. It filled me up not because it was in opposition to another β€œteam”. It filled me up because it was beautiful.

09.02.2026 03:05 β€” πŸ‘ 148    πŸ” 19    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It was transforming the biggest NFL stage in the world into a sugar cane plantation that did it for me.

Like, the multiple layers of turning an American icon into a plantation and highlighting the history of exploitation of Black and Brown bodies by the NFL and American colonialism simultaneously?

09.02.2026 01:54 β€” πŸ‘ 9217    πŸ” 1763    πŸ’¬ 77    πŸ“Œ 67

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the TaΓ­nos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

09.02.2026 01:38 β€” πŸ‘ 20659    πŸ” 5277    πŸ’¬ 108    πŸ“Œ 179

Just a beautiful celebration. Loved it.

09.02.2026 01:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

OK "god bless america" and then naming every country in the americas from south to north is absolute king shit

09.02.2026 01:33 β€” πŸ‘ 28927    πŸ” 5013    πŸ’¬ 177    πŸ“Œ 154
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Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: β€œHe might have thought β€˜how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said β€˜this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

04.02.2026 06:43 β€” πŸ‘ 8776    πŸ” 3826    πŸ’¬ 165    πŸ“Œ 792

For sale: Nazi coat, gently worn

(Size small)

27.01.2026 00:17 β€” πŸ‘ 3391    πŸ” 564    πŸ’¬ 85    πŸ“Œ 21

It's really distressing the extent to which in all of this Silverio Villegas GonzΓ‘lez, the first man to be murdered by ICE in the streets, has been almost completely forgotten

Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

25.01.2026 07:14 β€” πŸ‘ 1606    πŸ” 535    πŸ’¬ 17    πŸ“Œ 11

We are observers, not protestors. We show up to document and film the atrocities ICE is committing. Using 5 year olds as bait. Kidnapping senior citizens. Breaking down doors without warrants. Murdering poets and nurses. Media has all of that information because *observers* were there to document it

25.01.2026 00:20 β€” πŸ‘ 5298    πŸ” 1560    πŸ’¬ 23    πŸ“Œ 39

Devastating.

25.01.2026 02:17 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

25.01.2026 01:18 β€” πŸ‘ 47139    πŸ” 18182    πŸ’¬ 1014    πŸ“Œ 1851

Wise words from WEB DuBois to gird us today: "It would be shame and cowardice to surrender this glorious land and its opportunities for civilization and humanity to the thugs and lynchers, the mobs and profiteers, the monopolists & gamblers who today choke its soul and steal its resources."

22.01.2026 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 6333    πŸ” 2218    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 38

Today’s General Strike in Minnesota was so beautiful. The care that humans have towards one another in this time of unprecedented state cruelty gives me tremendous hope. As a society, we know how to draw lines in the sand. Don’t disappear our friends, family, and neighbors.

24.01.2026 03:10 β€” πŸ‘ 159    πŸ” 26    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
The main picture shows a person being held down whilst pepper sprayed int be face.
The headline reads Children as young as 5 detained. Other headlines include;
Somali American citizen arrested held of TW days.
Preschoolers detention
ICE claimed enhanced power to enter homes.

The main picture shows a person being held down whilst pepper sprayed int be face. The headline reads Children as young as 5 detained. Other headlines include; Somali American citizen arrested held of TW days. Preschoolers detention ICE claimed enhanced power to enter homes.

Today’s Minnesota Star Tribune front page will be hung in museums in future.

Every headline, every inch of it documenting a failed state; a descent into authoritarianism.

23.01.2026 11:05 β€” πŸ‘ 765    πŸ” 371    πŸ’¬ 26    πŸ“Œ 17

are they not monsters?

22.01.2026 00:08 β€” πŸ‘ 3817    πŸ” 997    πŸ’¬ 44    πŸ“Œ 25