News & Reviews

WORD: NBA player Etan Thomas reads poetry in San Francisco

Was that NBA power forward Etan Thomas of the Washington Wizards we saw hanging in the HP on Sunday night? Yes, that was Thomas detouring from the Wizzards’ West Coast road trip for a quick reading of his poetry anthology More Than An Athlete, published by More Black Press, at Malcolm X Academy Elementary in San Francisco’s Bay View/Hunter’s Point District.

Also in attendance: Barbara Becnel, who is well known for advocating Stan "Tookie" Williams and fought to overturn his death sentence right up until governor Schwarzenegger iced him at San Quentin. In a possible sign of poetic justice, we hear Becnel is going to make a run for California’s governorship and try and boot the Terminator out of office.

We also spotted David Zirin, author of What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States, and journalist Ebony Colbert among others at Sunday’s festivities, which included performances by the Peace Makers, United Playaz, Youth Movement Records, Rap 4 Rights, Tulin, Eric Foster, Colored Ink, and Kirya Traber.

With the release of his first collection of poems, Thomas defies the stereotype of the a-political athlete. In More Than An Athlete, many of the poems take on controversial topics such as the Death Penalty, the GOP, racism and abortion.

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