The Collision of Sports, Politics and Culture | A Busboys and Poets 20 Year Anniversary Presentation
Date and Time
Sep 9, 2025 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Sep 9, 2025 6:00 pm
14th & V
In celebration of the 20 year anniversary of Busboys and Poets, award-winning political sportswriter Dave Zirin, author and former basketball player for the Washington Wizards Etan Thomas, and justice journalist and sportswriter Chuck Modiano are joining us on the Langston Hughes stage for a conversation about how sports, politics, and culture impact each other and our communities. Copies of their books The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World and Police Brutality and White Supremacy: The Fight Against American Traditions will be available for purchase during and after the event, and they will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of Zirin’s book,THE KAPERNICK EFFECT, and Thomas’s book, POLICE BRUTALITY AND WHITE SUPREMACY, will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets
Dave Zirin was named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World”. He is the sports editor at the Nation Magazine, their first sports editor in over 150 years of existence. He has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States,” by the New York Times icon Robert Lipsyte. He also hosts Edge of Sports Television on The Real News Network.
He has written eleven books on the politics of sports, including the acclaimed biography Jim Brown: Last Man Standing. He is also the co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable with former NFL player Michael Bennett
Zirin has brought his blend of sports and politics to multiple television programs including ESPN’s Outside the Lines, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN, and Democracy Now!with Amy Goodman. He has also been on numerous national radio programs from sports radio to National Public Radio’s Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, and All Things Considered.
Zirin has also been an advisor to filmmakers ranging from Ken Burns to Ang Lee and has appeared in a number of documentaries. He also produced a segment on the forthcoming Showtime documentary about Dr. Harry Edwards. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, New York Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the Pittsburgh Courier, and many other publications.
Etan Thomas, a former eleven-year NBA player, was born in Harlem and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has published multiple books including: We Matter: Athletes and Activism (voted a top ten best activism book of all time by BookAuthority), More than an Athlete, Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge, and Voices of the Future. Thomas received the 2010 National Basketball Players Association Community Contribution Award as well as the 2009 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation Legacy Award--both honoring his advocacy for social justice. He is a senior writer for BasketballNews.com and a regular contributor to the Guardian and The Undefeated. He can frequently be seen on MSNBC as a special correspondent and cohosts a weekly show with Dave Zirin called, The Collision: Where Sports and Politics Collide.
Chuck Modiano
Justice Journalist. Sportswriter. Co-host: The Collision, WPFW http://wpfwfm.org/radio (10am, Th) Mastodon @chuckmodi1@kolektiva.social IG @chuckmodi1
BOOK DETAILS
The Kaepernick Effect
Taking a Knee, Changing the World
By Dave Zirin
September 14, 2021 | Paperback, 240 pages, $17.99
Police Brutality and White Supremacy
The Fight Against American Traditions
By Etan Thomas
January 11, 2022 | Paperback, 320 pages, $18.95
