7741. A Conversation with Polish Basketball Legend Kent Washington
- Publication Date:
- 05-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Join the East Central European Center at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University for a conversation with Kent Washington, the first African-American and first American to play professional basketball in Cold War Eastern Europe. Recruited into the top Polish league in 1979, Washington went on to play five seasons in the Solidarity-era communist country. His story told for the first time in his new memoir, Kentomania: A Black Basketball Virtuoso in Communist Poland, is unprecedented, weaving together professionalism, race, and politics in powerful and daring ways. Washington will appear in conversation with Columbia University Lecturer in Polish Christopher Caes.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Communism, Race, and Sports
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Poland