Dear Adam Silver
By Dear Adam Silver
Dear Adam SilverNov 04, 2019
Episode 87: Andrew Maraniss and Inaugural Ballers
New York Times Bestselling author Andrew Maraniss is back on the show to discuss Inaugural Ballers, his 2022 book that tells the story of the first US women's Olympic basketball team that played in the 1976 games. This incredible team was recently inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and it felt like the perfect time to chat with Andrew about this moment in history, that has helped to shape women's basketball today.
Kyle Green (MMA nerd, Professor of Sociology at SUNY Brockport, and all around wonderful guy) joins as co-host as we dig into this fascinating story that teaches us much about basketball and also the history of the United States.
Episode 86: A Summer Sports Stories Reunion with Kyle Green and Tunisha Singleton
The always charming and witty Kyle Green (Ph.D. in Sociology) and Tunisha Singleton (Ph.D. in Media Psychology) join the show to discuss the sports stories from the summer that are on our minds! Topics range from Las Vegas as a professional sports center point, watching big games and matches at Stadium Swim, the continued failures of UFC as an institution, and the misguided UNITUS apparel launch. Throughout the episode, we collectively feel all of the anger, frustration and excitement around our fandom and process it together.
You can follow Tunisha on Twitter @TSingletonSay and Kyle @kylethegreen.
More new episodes of Dear Adam Silver coming soon so please subscribe and share!
Episode 85: Maria Molteni is Back and Senda + Sedna are Here
Dear Adam Silver listeners! It has been a minute! I am glad to be back at the mic and sharing a conversation that touches on themes of family, expectations of gender and health trauma all via the topics of basketball and astrology......very timely for Mother's Day.
I am excited to share my conversation with interdisciplinary artist, educator, mystic and Team Captain of New Craft Artists in Action (NCAA) Maria Molteni, who is back on the show (first featured on Episode #32: Maria Molteni and Basketball Magic).
Maria and I unpack the wonderfully complicated and nuanced Senda/Sedna zine that we worked on together this past November, which includes an essay about Senda Berenson (founder of women’s bball) and an essay about Sedna 90377 (Maria's favorite Trans-Neptunian Object). The printing of this zine coincided with the release of Maria’s Star Ball, which was created based on the design of the Cosmic Court in Fall River, MA that Maria painted alongside local students and NCAA members. On this episode we discuss the zine, the ball and all of the themes and concepts that they offer to us.
Please be aware that Maria and I are very candid on this episode and discuss on our struggles with our body, some relating to infertility, and familial trauma.
You can find the Senda/Sedna zine for sale here and the Star Ball on sale here and you can follow Maria on Instagram @strega_maria
Episode 84: Blake Gillespie on Basketball Amidst War in Ukraine
Blake and his work have been featured on three previous episodes of Dear Adam Silver, including episodes 44, 48 and 81.
Episode 83: Dr. Johanna Mellis on Understanding History through Sports
Dr. Johanna Mellis is an Assistant Professor of History at Ursinus College where her research focuses on international sport during the Cold War, namely in the Eastern Bloc and Hungary especially, in order to connect the local voices and experiences of Hungarian athletes to the IOC and broader international sport society. Her manuscript, Changing the Global Game: Hungarian Athletes and International Sport During the Cold War, examines Hungarian sportspeople’s interactions with the International Olympic Committee from 1948-1989. Changing the Global Game shows how Hungarian athletes, Socialist Hungarian state sport officials, and the IOC gradually realized by the 1960s that sporting cooperation with one another - and not East-West political clashes nor resistance - was the way to achieve their respective aims of sport success, career and financial stability, and political and institutional strength.
Our conversation covers many different topics, but we do repeatedly come back to a consistent theme of unlearning our early understandings of world history through sport to form a better, more accurate, and historically inclusive narrative.
You can follow Dr. Mellis's amazing and well curated Twitter feed @JohannaMellis. As I share in the podcast, my eyes have been opened to a multitude of different historical perspectives on sports through Dr. Mellis's Twitter account.
Dr. Mellis also cohosts the End of Sport Podcast, a podcast on capitalist sport, labor, and justice for end times. The show features interviews with athletes, critical sports journalists, and fellow academics to explore all the ways that people use sport to harm others - i.e. through racist mascotry, the NCAA and higher ed’s exploitation of Black and Brown college athletic workers, sexual abuse and harassment, transphobia, and more.
You can read Dr. Mellis's writing alongside her End of Sport cohosts in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, The Guardian, Time, The Baffler, and more. She also has sole-authored pieces with The Washington Post and Arizona State University’s Global Sport Matters.
As always, thanks for listening! Please share, rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 82: Mikey Yates on the Joy of Slam Ups and Painting as a Form of Witness
Mikey Yates is a painter currently based in Kansas City, MO and a resident at the Charlotte Street Foundation, where our interview took place. Mikey paints tiny moments that carry a significant weight to him, sometimes also engaging with historical world events. Basketball, his first love, comes up again in different scenes that he depicts and his rich, dynamic palette brings a glow and reverence to each of his paintings. Grateful to have the chance to talk shop with Mikey and unpack how his work, and deep appreciation for basketball, came to be.
You can see and find out about his work here and be sure to follow him on Instagram @mikey_yates.
Please rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you get your podcasts! Thanks for listening, as always.
Episode 81: Blake and Giovanni on Pickup B-ball and the Instagram Community
Blake and Giovanni are on the pod today to discuss pickup basketball and the creative culture around the game. We touch on playing during COVID and post vaccines, including their personal experiences, and the ways they have used basketball and photography as a means to connect with other likeminded people around the world.
Thank you to Blake and Giovanni for coming on the show. Follow them on instagram! Blake is @sacredhoopsbook and Giovanni is @hgnext. And feel free to listen to my earlier conversations with Blake, featured in Episode 44 and Episode 48.
Thank you to all you listeners out there! Please subscribe to Dear Adam Silver, and if you already are subscribed, please share, rate and review wherever you find your podcasts. Thank you so much for all of your support.
Episode 80: Whereas Hoops with Noah Cohan and John Early
Noah Cohan and John Early who are on the show to discuss their project Whereas Hoops. Noah Cohan is the Assistant Director of American Culture Studies at Washington University St. Louis and is a previous Dear Adam Silver guest from Episode 22 where he joined the show to discuss his book on fandom entitled We Average Unbeautiful Watchers. John Early is an artist and senior lecturer at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington university St. Louis. Their collective project Whereas Hoops was created to draw attention to the lack of basketball courts in Forest Park, which is located in St. Louis and is one of the biggest urban parks in the country.....but with all that space, there are still no basketball courts. Noah and John are working collaboratively to highlight this issue within its' proper historical context and hopefully correct it in the long term.
Follow Whereas Hoops on Twitter and Instagram. Thank you to John and Noah for coming on and thank you to you all for listening! Please subscribe, share, rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 79: Sidelined by Julie DiCaro
Episode 79 features a conversation with Julie DiCaro, author of the recently published book Sidelined: Sports, Culture and Being a Woman in America. This book unpacks sexism in sports media for fans and non-fans alike. Julie writes about her time in radio covering sports, to the harassment she has received herself from fans and listeners to her time in the sport for development world. Thank you to Julie for coming on and sharing about all that went into producing this book, including her personal experiences. You can read more of Julie's work on Deadspin, where she is a writer and editor, and hear more on her podcast The Ladies Room, which she cohosts with Jane McManus. Every week they dive into issues surrounding women and sports. You can follow her on Twitter @JulieDiCaro.
Thank you, as always, to Bookman's Entertainment Exchange for sponsoring this episode. And you can pick up your own copy of Side Lined at Bookman's!
Episode 78: Brian Tran on the Excitement of the Play In Tournament
Long time Dear Adam Silver supporter and returning guest Brian Tran is back on the show to discuss our feelings about the first weekend of the NBA playoffs, including the play in tournament, the long standing question of whether refs and players are coworkers or colleagues, and our recent transition to sworn enemies as the Suns vs. Lakers series begins. Thank you to Brian for joining and indulging all of my emotional/over the top takes. And Happy Playoffs to all Dear Adam Silver listeners! Thank you for your support.
Episode 77: Glauco Adorno and Our Letters to Senda
Glacuo Adorno is back on the pod today (listen to episodes 40, 25 and 3 for more)! Long time listeners will remember that we collaborated in Lithuania on a body of artwork made about women’s basketball pioneer Senda Berenson. We met while we were both in graduate school at Louisiana State university, when I was studying fine art and Glauco was studying art history and he is now a curator based in Rio de Janeiro. He is back on the pod today to read some of the letters that we wrote to Berenson while we were Lithuania, a part of this work which we have not shared before. Thank you to Glauco for coming on and being so willing to discuss this ongoing work and the hardships of the pandemic in Brazil right now. And thank you to you all for listening! Please share, subscribe, rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you get your podcasts.
Please note that we recorded this episode on Zoom and the sound quality is a bit lower than usual.
Episode 76: Claude Johnson, Founder of the Black Fives Foundation
I am so excited to share this episode, featuring Claude Johnson, founder of the Black Fives Foundation. The Black Fives Foundation’s mission is to research, preserve, showcase, teach, and honor the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball. The Foundation is doing incredible things around education and celebration of this history. I have been following Black Fives for the last couple of years, which is just a drop in the bucket of how long Claude has been doing this work and sharing these stories. The trajectory and development of what is now the Black Fives Foundation is a great reminder of all the good that can be done not just through your job, but through interests and subjects you find compelling that add to our shared discourse and push for change. So thank you, Claude for your work and for joining me today. You can follow the Black Fives Foundation and all the exciting things that are happening on Twitter @blackfives and on Instagram @blackfives.
Thank you all for listening! Please share, subscribe, rate and review Dear Adam Silver. Your support is so appreciated.
Episode 75: The Menschwarmers!!!
Episode 75 (!!!) features Gabe and Jamie, also known as the Menschwarmers, of the Menschwarmers Podcast. In their own words, Gabe and Jamie are Jews. They also love sports. But most of all? They love Jews in sports. Menschwarmers is their biweekly podcast where they gab about goings-on, interview fascinating industry figures and keep you updated on everything related to Jews in sports. I was excited to have the chance to speak with them about Jewish sports stuff and beyond. You can subscribe to the Menschwarmers wherever you get your podcasts and follow them on twitter @menschwarmers. These guys are great and we had fun and I hope you all enjoy listening to this episode! And please share, rate and review Dear Adam Silver. Thank you for your support!
Episode 74: Andrew Maraniss and Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke
New York Times Best selling author Andrew Maraniss is back on the pod to discuss his newest book, just out on March 2 (!!!!), entitled Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke. The book is about Glenn Burke, the first openly gay MLB Player and the inventor of the high five. This is an incredible and devastating story and couldn’t be more timely, as Democrats in the House of Representatives just passed the Equality Act, which is now on it’s way to the Senate and if passed by both chambers and signed into law by President Biden, would establish anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. In addition, there are also several states that are currently in the process of trying to pass anti trans legislation in the area of sports. The story of Glenn Burke is ever relevant as we continue to fight for equal treatment for everyone, no matter their gender or sexual identity. Thank you to Andrew for coming on again and thank you to you all for listening. Please share, subscribe, rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you find your podcasts.
You can follow Andrew on Twitter and Instagram. And you can buy Singled Out at Bookman's or wherever you shop locally!
Please note that this episode was recorded the same day as our first conversation from Episode 72 about Andrew's book Games of Deception, so we just jump right into the conversation about Singled Out without any of the usual formalities. We were also having some technical issues due to weather which is why it is a bit broken up in some parts of the conversation.
Episode 73: Mapping Basketball Players with Kirk Goldsberry
Kirk Goldsberry joins the pod to discuss cartography, NBA Stats and how he has combined the two to make (stunning!) graphics that reflect recent NBA trends and the history of basketball. Kirk is a Lecturer in Management and the Associate Director of the Center for Leadership and Ethics at the University of Texas at Austin as well as a staff writer at ESPN. What I love about Kirk's work is that he brings together art and science, culminating in a visual that celebrates basketball and informs the viewer.
Follow Kirk on Twitter and Instagram.
If you are interested in purchasing a Naismith International Park Map click here.
Thank you to Kirk for coming on and thank you to you all for listening. Please share, subscribe, rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you find your podcasts.
Episode 72: Andrew Maraniss and Games of Deception
Author Andrew Maraniss joins the show to discuss his book Games of Deception, which focuses on the first Olympics where basketball was included as a sport (for men only). These were the 1936 olympic games played in the heart of Nazi Germany during the regime's ascension. The games were used as a way for the Nazi's to show off and receive some validation from other world powers and individuals. And in the center of all of this, we have the inventor of the modern game of basketball, James Naismith, traveling to Germany to watch the game played as an Olympic sport for the first time. This is a truly fascinating and relevant story.
You can find Andrew's website here and follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
Books mentioned in this podcast: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, Hitler's American Model by James Q. Whitman, Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Strong Inside by Andrew Maraniss
Episode 71: Professor Douglas Hartmann on Understanding the 1968 Olympic Protests
Douglas Hartmann, Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, is back on the show today to discuss his book Race, Culture and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath. This book encompasses the time leading up to the protests during which the Olympic Project for Human Rights, led by Professor of Sociology Harry Edwards, was attempting to organize a boycott of the 1968 games by black athletes. From there we learn about the actual moment where Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists on the medal stand in Mexico City and the legacy of their actions. What I appreciate so much about this book is the focus on the iconic image that was made of the protest that night and how that image has lived on and been used, for celebratory, educational and malicious reasons. Professor Hartmann is a returning guest to Dear Adam Silver and was featured in Episode 64 to discuss his book Midnight Basketball. I am grateful that he joined the pod again to share his work and thoughts, especially about how this action taken in 1968 connects to how we see athletes protesting and speaking out about racial justice today.
Books featured in this episode:
Race, Culture and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath by Douglas Hartmann
Midnight Basketball by Douglas Hartmann
Listening to Images by Tina Campt
Episode 70: What Basketball Means to Lawrence, KS
Back in February of 2020, I was a project based resident at Lawrence Arts Center and spent two and a half weeks researching the history and current state of basketball in Lawrence, KS. The history of the game runs deep in this college town as James Naismith, the inventor of the game, was the first basketball coach at the University Kansas (KU) and worked with many people in the town and region on the development of the game. As I am sure you can imagine, I learned a lot while I was there and can't wait to get back to continue to working through how the game lives in this majority basketball crazed town!
I want to thank the Lawrence Arts Center for supporting this work and providing me with Jayhawks Men’s basketball tickets. Especially Kyla Strid and Justin Harbaugh for all their logistical and conceptual support. I also wanted to thank all my guests; Nick Krug, Leo Hayden, Curtis Marsh and Linda Reimond answered so many of my questions and were patient with my tight schedule. And thank you to Tim Gaddie of the DeBruce Center for all of his knowledge. And thanks to the Lawrence Public library for letting me use their recording studios! And thank you for my contacts at Haskell Indian Nations University for sitting down with me and sharing with me about the school. And also thank you to anyone else who was willing to talk to me or gave me a ride when it was too far to walk. And finally, thank you to my dear friend Adam Meistrell who encouraged me to come to Lawrence. He and his family opened their home to me while I was there and I couldn’t be more grateful. And thank you, to you all, for listening, and Happy New Year.
Episode 69: All Things Frustrating and Exciting in Sports w/ The Profs
Returning guests and Professors of Sociology (aka The Profs) Stephen Suh, Alex Manning and Kyle Green are back on the show to discuss recent sports news that has been on our minds. We speak about the financial impact of the pandemic on local sports teams, MLB's recent decision to recognize the statistics of the Negro Leagues as major league and breaking as an olympic sports and much more....thanks so much to The Profs for joining me on a very non-traditional Christmas Eve. And thanks so much to you all for listening and supporting this podcast for the past year!
Episode 68: Zoe Lambert and Adia
Tucson local Zoe Lambert is on the podcast today to discuss her documentary titled Adia, which focuses on the recent history of the University of Arizona women's basketball program and is named for the head coach of the women's basketball team, Adia Barnes. Zoe and I discuss the initial idea for this documentary, how it evolved over time and some of her favorite parts. The documentary will be streamed on The Loft's website in February, which is a local theatre here in Tucson. . Thanks to Zoe for coming on the show and all the work she put into making this doc and celebrating U of A women's basketball.
Check out The Loft's website for details about show dates and times for Adia here.
Episode 67: Mission for Arizona Organizers Carly Berke and Ben Horowitz
As many of you already know, this election cycle I was a volunteer for Mission for Arizona, the democratic coordinated campaign for Mark Kelly and the Biden/Harris ticket that helped to flip AZ from red to blue for the first time in many decades! And today on the pod I am joined by two of the organizers from the campaign, Carly Berke and Ben Horowitz, who dedicated the past year of their life to winning the election for the democratic party. We get into the all of the work that went into making this historic change possible, their feelings on the current state of politics, both in AZ and the rest of the country, and what the future of the democratic movement might look like. I was grateful and excited to work with both Carly and Ben and I am so glad they are on the pod to share a little bit about the behind the scenes of campaigns in a crucial swing state.
Although this episode is a little different from the norm for the pod, I believe that politics and political campaigns take a huge amount of creativity and of course, fierce competitiveness, and a belief you can win no matter what. So when you come at it from a conceptual point of view, the subject matter fits right in to our larger conversation around sports and art.
Thank you to Carly and Ben for joining and thank you all for listening. Please email me @ abigaillsmithson@gmail.com with any questions.
Episode 66: Stealing Home with Author Eric Nusbaum
Eric Nusbaum, author of the recently published Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, joins the show to share about researching and writing this book and his personal fandom of the Dodgers. The book focuses on the story of the Aréchiga family, who were forced out of their home and off their property by the city, like many other families living in the Mexican-American neighborhood of Palo Verde, to clear the area for Dodger Stadium to be built. Besides the central narrative of the displacement of a multigenerational family, this book is also about the fight for public housing, the red scare and a large American city grasping for continued relevance through Major League Baseball. Stealing Home is filled with a richness in detail that defines each character and their background, as well as beautiful sketches by Adam Villacin of the people and places we are learning about. Thank you to Eric for writing a book that represents a specific time and a place but very much speaks to systemic issues and injustices that continue to this day.
Thank you all for listening and if you would like to get in touch, please email me @ abigaillsmithson@gmail.com.
Episode 65: Loving Sports When They Don't Love you Back with Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson
Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson join the show to discuss their recently published book Loving Sports When They Don't Love You back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan. Luther is a freelance journalist, Davidson is a sports writer for The Athletic and they are both dedicated sports fans. This book is an incredible collection of perspectives and stories for dedicated fans who believe in the ability of sports to evolve and grow as a part of our greater culture. From loving your team when you hate the owner to an honest, thoughtful conversation about the arbitrary controversies around doping, this book explores challenging issues that the invested fan faces. It is a true document and its' relevance to this moment we are living through, as sports fans, is incredibly impactful.
Episode 64: Midnight Basketball with Professor Douglas Hartmann
Professor Douglas Hartmann teaches sociology at the University of Minnesota and is on the show to discuss his book Midnight Basketball, which takes a deep, detailed look into the social initiative known as Midnight Basketball, developed in the late 1980s . In this episode, we unpack the racism that was built into this program, which targeted young adult African-American men who were living in large cities around the country. It is important to use the word targeted in this case because the use of surveillance was at the root of this project that used the game of basketball as a form of control during certain hours of the day.
As we discuss, this initiative is tied to our incoming presidential administration because Joe Biden was a proponent of Midnight Basketball during the mid 1990s and the fight for the passage of the 1994 crime bill. This conversation is timely and necessary to take a close look at the motivations and results of social policy that fall in line with the systemic racism inherent to our country, even when it is dressed up as help or social support.
Thank you to Doug for coming on and for writing this educational and informative book. As always, thank you to you for listening and I hope you all enjoy this episode.
Episode 63: Brian Tran on this moment as an LA sports fan + election fears and hopes
St. Louis based writer and long time (and first!) friend of the pod Brian Tran is back on the show to discuss his championship winning LA sport teams, the magic of baseball and our concerns and hopes for the election.
Thank you all for listening! Please share, rate, and leave a review! And vote!
Episode 62: Lori Powers and Survival Hoops
Lori Powers is a Los Angeles based artist that works with found objects collected from neighborhoods near her home to create characters that she installs on the streets where she momentarily impacts drivers to get out of their heads and into their heart while passing through her neighborhood. A passionate, senior, gold winning basketball player she lives for the day she can get back on the court with her team safely. Her art, like basketball, is a team event. On the court the thrill of receiving a lightning speed blind pass to put in a bucket never gets old.
Lori is on the pod today to discuss her recent work Survival Hoops made in collaboration with Nico Naismith. The two have created over a hundred basketball hoops out of found objects (a surfboard, a grill, a baby carriage and more) and installed them all over the streets of LA during the pandemic, when park hoops were closed off. The movement of Survival Hoops has now spread all over the world! Huge thank you to vagabond pick up basketball player, brilliant writer and previous podcast guest Isaac Eger for writing a beautiful piece about Lori and Nico's work in the LA Times and for putting me in touch with Lori as a podcast guest. If anyone is interested in making their own survival hoop and needs help, you can email Lori at lorizpowers@gmail.com. And a huge thank you to Lori for coming on the show!
Here is Isaac Eger's piece in the LA Times and here is the short documentary on Survival Hoops made by a local CBS station in LA.
Episode 61: Ballerz 2K20 feat. Cortney Lamar Charleston, Caroline Cabrera and Zain Aslam
A Dear Adam Silver first! Live poetry on the show! Thank you to the writer and poets Cortney Lamar Charleston, Caroline Cabrera and Zain Aslam for coming on the pod to share their poems that were recently featured in Ballerz 2K20, a team of basketball poems edited by P. Scott Cunningham of O, Miami. These three poems are wonderfully rich and add to our collective understanding and narratives around the game of basketball.
You can buy your own copy of Ballerz 2K20 here!
Episode 60: P. Scott Cunningham on O, Miami and His Deep Love for the Heat
P. Scott Cunningham is a poet and essayist originally from Boca Raton, FL, now based in Miami. He is the author of Ya Te Veo , selected by Billy Collins for the Miller Williams Poetry Series. Scott is a graduate of Wesleyan University and is the founder and director of O, Miami, a non-profit organization that celebrates Miami, FL through the lens of poetry. I found out about his work because he recently edited a collection of poems all about basketball entitled Ballerz 2K20 . Scott is also a longtime Miami Heat fan which made this podcast even more interesting to record right now! To learn more about O, Miami and the poetry festival they put on every year, please check out omiami.org and follow them on Instagram at @Omiamifestival. The organization is truly dedicated to celebrating Miami and engaging with their community through encounters with poems.
You can find the New Yorker article we reference in the episode about the poetry contest Scott organized in 2010 when Lebron joined the Heat here.
Episode 59: Ivan Salcido on Creation Myths and Caring for Family History
Born in El Paso, TX, Ivan Salcido is a Mexican-American artist living and working in Portland, OR. He draws on personal experience, family history and an interest in Mesoamerican mythology for inspiration. His practice covers various skills and media, with formal training in fine art, carpentry and metalwork, including sculpture, drawing, and painting and the use of steel, wood and neon. His new work has shifted toward the narrative, while older works were primarily focused on abstract forms and elements subtly rooted in personal experience.
Ivan came on the show to discuss the amazing basketball card he created in honor of his grandmother's playing days back in the 1950's. We also discussed his body of work entitled Creation Myth, where he makes pieces that combine elements from modern day basketball in reference to a similar game played in Mesoamerican culture.
You can view more of his work here and follow him on instagram @idsalcido.
Episode 58: H-O-R-S-E, A Comedy by Kathleen Cahill
H-O-R-S-E, a Comedy by Kathleen Cahill featuring Peter Story and Elisabeth Nunziato.
Episode 57: Bradley Robert Ward on the Messy Process of Making Cyanotypes and His Recent Work About Baseball
Bradley Robert Ward is back on the pod (listen to Episode 21 for our previous conversation about bball and some of his older work!!) to discuss his research and new work about the Negro Leagues and his own relationship with baseball, as a fan, former player and image maker. Our conversation was timely for many reasons, one of them being that the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers was just this past Friday, August 28. Bradley and I discussed the failures of MLB to adequately address the systemic racism that exists both in their past and contemporary existence and how this connects to a larger issue within the US, where BIPOC histories are regularly left out of the historical narrative and misremembered, romanticized or forgotten by our mainstream media.
You can view Bradley's artwork on his website and follow him on Instagram here.
Thank you to Bookman's for sponsoring this episode of Dear Adam Silver.
Episode 56: Thoughts on the Wildcat Strike in B-Ball with 2/3 of the Profs
Professor's of Sociology Kyle Green and Alex Manning, at SUNY Brockport and Hamilton College respectively, are back on the pod to discuss the last few days in the world of sports.
Please keep in mind that this discussion was recorded on the evening of Thursday, August 27.
You can follow Alex Manning on twitter here for discussion on the crossover between sports and sociology, and check out Kyle Green's website here.
Episode 55: Dwayne Mansfield on Hoops and Horticulture
Seattle based Art Director Dwayne Mansfield is on the show today to discuss his new and evolving brand Hoops and Horticulture and the concept behind his handmade basketball planters. His dedication to exploring the idea of growth through basketball and plants is at the crux of this work.
Follow Hoops and Horticulture on Instagram here and please check out his Etsy store and support his work here. The planters are elegant, thoughtfully designed and a must have for any bball fan/plant collector.
Thank you to Bookman's for sponsoring this episode of Dear Adam Silver.
Episode 54: Ciara Ingram on Using Basketball as a Creator
Ciara Ingram a Videographer and Editor at SLAM magazine. She focuses on using filmmaking to capture life through the lens of the arts, music, and basketball culture. In this conversation, we discuss her beginnings in basketball, her time playing in college, and how she has used the game in a creative way to launch her career as an artist.
If you are interested in checking out Ciara's work, including much of the video work we reference in our discussion, you can find it here.
Thank you to Ciara for coming on the show!
Episode 53: Abdi Farah on the Excitement and Frustrations of the Bubble
New Orleans based artist Abdi Farah is back on the show to discuss many things including the highs of bubble basketball, the lows of sideline interviews and how it all relates to current happenings around the rest of the country.
As a note, we recorded this episode before it was announced that the Big Ten and the Pac-12 will be postponing their fall athletic season.
You can view and learn more about Abdi's artwork here.
Episode 52: The Potential of the NBA as a Space for Social Change and Some Reopening Ramblings with The Profs
Professors Kyle Green, Stephen Cho Suh and Alex Manning are on the pod to discuss their collectively written paper entitled Discursive Footwork on the Hardwood. This piece of writing focuses on four NBA players speaking out on the topics of cultural appropriation and both systemic and individual acts of racism through essays published on The Player's Tribune. The paper unpacks the possibilities and limitations of working to address and dismantle racism within the institution of the NBA, which is known to be a more progressive space in comparison to other major sports leagues in the United States.
The four essays that are referenced and analyzed in the paper are linked to below.
Blake Griffin
Jason Collins
Jeremy Lin
Kyle Korver
We also get into ALL of the WNBA/NBA reopening news, including how players and leagues will go about continuing their activism once they are on the court.
Kyle Green is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at SUNY Brockport. Check out his website and learn more about his podcast Give Theory a Chance here.
Stephen Cho Suh is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s & Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
Alex Manning is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hamilton College.
Episode 51: The Momentum of Speak Up and Dribble
We all remember when Laura Ingraham told Lebron and KD to "Shut up and dribble." Her words, infused with racism and hate, were meant to keep two African-American men from speaking out on issues they care about, beyond their sport. The Speak Up and Dribble movement is a direct response to those racist comments as well as the ongoing protests against police brutality and in support of Black Lives Matter. The organizers gather children and adults to dribble basketballs through the streets and focus on the bounce of the ball as the heartbeat of those we have lost to systemic racism. I had the absolute pleasure to speak with the founders (six out of seven!) of this brilliant movement who have organized protests in their home city of San Francisco as well as offering support for similar happenings around the country.
Please follow these wonderful groups that are using basketball to create change and foster community @speakupdribble and @the.hooper.mentality
Episode 50: Brooklyn Film Camera, Social Unrest and Racism in Photography with Kyle Depew
Kyle Depew is an activist, the owner of Brooklyn Film Camera, a wonderful photographer and a dear friend from my time living in New York City. Kyle and I first met when we worked together at The Impossible Project, which is a company that made new film for vintage Polaroid cameras (now known as Polaroid). After we both left Impossible, Kyle started his own company and shop called Brooklyn Film Camera in Bushwick where they sell film and film cameras of all types. In addition, BFC organizes events for image makers and film enthusiasts and their staff is available for photographing events. Kyle uses his love for photography to create and foster community and tell stories. He was a wonderful coworker and I'm grateful for his thoughtfulness and care.
Check out and support Brooklyn Film Camera for all your film and camera needs (seriously, get an SX-70)! And follow them on instagram @brooklynfilmcamera.
Please note that Kyle and I spoke over two weeks ago so, of course, much has happened since then that is not included in our discussion.
Episode 49: Isaac Scott on Documenting the Protests
Isaac Scott is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia where he is studying ceramics. During the recent protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Isaac turned to photography and began documenting various scenes and instances he saw unfolding in the streets. A friend of mine tagged me in a few photos of his on Instagram that showed police officers playing basketball with protesters on a hoop set up in downtown Philadelphia. His images speak to the ferventness of our current uprising and the need we have for storytellers who live in the place they are choosing to document. The photographs show the depth of how broken our system of policing is as well as the strength and resiliency of protesters. Thank you to Isaac for coming on the pod and his willingness to share his experiences during the past 7 weeks.
Your can read the New Yorker essay about his images here and an article from his hometown of Madison, WI here. Also, read more about his ceramic work featured at The Clay Studio here.
Your can follow Isaac on Instagram @thisisphotography2020 and @this_is_ceramics
Episode 48: Sharing My First Letter to Adam Silver with Blake Gillespie
Blake Gillespie is on the pod (again!) to discuss the first letter I wrote to Adam Silver, back in the early fall of 2017, regarding the rule that the NBA had/has in place that requires players to stand for the National Anthem.
Blake Gillespie is a former journalist and current writer who thinks and makes work about basketball as a force larger than the game itself. Blake is the writer, editor and creator behind Sacred: On Devotion to Spiritual Hoops, a publication that looks at the meditative and mental value of the game. He is based in Sacramento, CA. You can read and learn more about Sacred here and follow him on instagram here.
Blake and I reference a couple things throughout the course of the conversation. Here is a link JJ Reddick's discussion with Taylor Rooks and here is a link to a conversation between Dave Zirin and Craig Hodges (you can also find their conversation in the Edge of Sports podcast feed). Also, an article that address the portal that Blake and I spoke about can be found here.
Episode 47: Tay Butler on Repurposing as Justice
Tay Butler is a multimedia artist based in Houston, TX. He is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he is focusing on photography.
Tay and I had the chance to discuss our frustrations with mainstream outlets using photography as an often misleading form of representation and his ongoing series of collages where he repurposes found imagery to create new narratives. And of course, we discussed the NBA reopening, predictions for the rest of the season and Tay's time playing basketball in Kosovo + beyond.
You can view his artwork here and follow him on Instagram here.
Episode 46: Noel W. Anderson on the Potential of Undoing
Noel W. Anderson is a visual artist and Area Head of Printmaking at New York University’s Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions. He has an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University.
Our conversation focuses on Noel's practice and work, much of it in the context of the murder of George Floyd and the mass protests that have followed. Noel's work is heavy, both in physical material and concept. Heavy, and also weightless as his pieces and ideas embody and span a range of time periods, critical theories and visual temptations.
You can view Anderson's artwork and find his writings here and you can follow him on Instagram here.
Episode 45: Gina Adams on Broken Treaties and Confronting US History
Gina Adams is a multimedia artist who lives in Vancouver, Canada where she is an Assistant Professor of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Adams' studio work includes the reuse of antique quilts and broken treaties between the United States and Native American tribes, sculpture, ceramics, painting, printmaking and drawing. She is a descendant of both Indigenous (Ojibwe) and colonial Americans. Her work speaks to her own identity as well as the historical and ongoing injustices preserved and perpetuated by the United States government. Adams' work has been exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and beyond and her work has been featured in many publication, including The New Yorker and Hyperallergic.
Adams' work is both delicate and heavy, stagnant and fluid, which speaks to the complexity that comes from looking back, while being present and considering the possibility of a better future.
Thank you to Gina Adams for coming on the show.
You can find more of Gina's work on her website here and you can follow her on Instagram here
Episode 44: A Heartfelt Plea to Adam Silver and a Dispatch from Sacramento with Blake Gillespie
About a week ago, Blake Gillespie reached out to me with a letter he had written to Adam Silver regarding the reopening of basketball. The letter, written so carefully and tenderly, is about much more than the game.
Blake Gillespie is a professional writer. He began his career contributing to Impose Magazine, an independent music and culture publication based in Brooklyn. He was a partner in the publication from 2012 to 2016, serving as an Associate Editor on the West Coast. He has contributed to numerous online and print publications including; Vice Sports, Bandcamp Daily, The Sacramento Bee, The East Bay Express, and The Sacramento News & Review. Blake is also the author and publisher of Sacred, a literary journal dedicated to basketball's universal language. Sacred is his first book and encompasses sports, art and spirituality. He is based in Sacramento and enjoys the game of basketball on many levels. .
https://www.sacredhoopsbook.com/shop/sacred-vol-1
You can follow Blake on instagram @scaredhoopbook and @busygillespie
Episode 43: Big Game, Small World with Alexander Wolff
Long time Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff joins the podcast to discuss his book (one of my favorites ) Big Game, Small World. In 1998, after the Chicago Bulls had won their sixth title but before Michael Jordan had officially announced his retirement, Alex began a year long trip to see how basketball exists in different places all over the world. From the middle of Bhutan to the middle of Bosnia, from China to Angola, Alex gives the reader insight into how the meaning of the game can be translated, and re-translated by various cultures and peoples.
This interview was very special for me because Big Game, Small World has come to be a guidebook for my own artwork. It is a true cultural document that holds weight eighteen years after it's publishing.
To read more about Alex, his career accomplishments and his recent book The Audacity of Hoop, please click here.
Episode 42: Unpacking The Last Dance with Brian Tran
I've been close to bursting for the past three weeks wanting to discuss The Last Dance on the pod! Thanks to Brian Tran for coming on to discuss some of his thoughts on the documentary and indulge my long list of talking points. We bounce around between the first six episodes and the most compelling themes and footage so far.
Brian Tran is an MFA candidate at Washington University in St. Louis where he studies and writes fiction. We first met at Paul ArtSpace, an art residency located just outside of St. Louis in Florrisant, MO. We bonded immediately over our shared love for basketball and podcasts so it makes sense that he was my first guest ever back in the summer of 2018. Always happy to have him on the show!
Episode 41: An Ode to Mail with Melodie Reay
Today's episode is all about mail and the post office. Fellow artist, mail appreciator/sender and dear friend Melodie Reay is my guest. We talk about what the mail has meant to us in our art practices and the everyday excitement of receiving a handwritten postcard. This discussion stems from concerns over continued funding of USPS and our fears of our mail system becoming completely privatized. We scoff at insurance, laugh about water damage and celebrate other mail woes. And basketball shows up, because basketball is in everything.
Melodie and first met while we were both graduate students at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. She was a year ahead of me in our MFA program and was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Baton Rouge. Her wonderful artwork can be seen here. She and her husband Jim Osbourne (also a wonderful artist) run a wonderful bakery called Rosch Bakehaus (pick up only right now) out of their home in Baton Rouge's Garden District. As someone who has eaten a lot of their sweet and savory creations, if you live in the area, they are highly recommended and a wonderful business to support. Visit their website here and follow them on instagram @rosch.bakehaus
Thanks for listening! As always, please make sure you are subscribed to the show. And please leave a rating and a review!
Episode 40: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine with Glauco Adorno
On today's podcast, my dear friend Glauco Adorno and I discuss the book Citizen: An American Lyric by award winning poet, playwright, educator and multimedia artist Claudia Rankine. This book is a masterful unpacking of how racism exists in the United States. Rankine combines poetry, pros, found images and text to express a personal meditation on how the system of white supremacy functions in this country, both in obvious and subtle ways. Specifically, a a large portion of the book is focused on Serena Williams and the hateful and unjust treatment she has experienced from the professional tennis world based on the color of her skin.
Glauco Adorno is a Brazilian curator and art historian based in Rio de Janeiro. We met each other during our time as graduate students at Louisiana State University. His website can be found here. On today's episode he also shares some of what his experience has been like during COVID-19 and how the virus is being handled in Brazil. He is also featured on episodes 3 and 25 of Dear Adam Silver.
Claudia Rankine was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1963 and received her BA from Williams College in 1986 and her MFA in poetry from Columbia Universit in 1993. She is currently the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University. Her website can be found here.
If you are interested in listening to any lectures by Rankine, the links are listed below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cnq71TlUvo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxU3MJmhzl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-SNKU3T7iA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYa25y4EGec&t=780s
Episode 39: Jeremy John Kaplan and a Dispatch from NYC
Brooklyn based artist Jeremy John Kaplan is back on the pod today to discuss basketball hoops (and of course, nets) being temporarily removed from parks around New York City to discourage people from gathering together in the time of COVID-19. Jeremy was originally a guest back on episode 20 of Dear Adam Silver where we discussed the Gold Nets Project, an ongoing body of work (est. 2005) where he spray paints basketball nets gold and then hangs them on hoops without a net or hoops that have torn, non functioning nets. This project has been a way for him to give back to the game as a dedicated fan and pickup basketball player. Now, Jeremy is going back to the parks where he has put up nets around New York City to photograph the empty, hoopless backboards that remain. We also get into a little bit of local politics in the city and the state and discuss our experiences during this pandemic and shut down.
To see more of Jeremy's work click here and to learn more about the Gold Nets Project click here.
Rebecca Solnit's essay Who Will Win the Fight for a Post-Coronavirus America? can be found here.
Please note that we recorded this episode last Wednesday, April 1.
Episode 38: Naomi Clement and Making Art During a Pandemic
Naomi Clement is a Canadian based potter and educator. We met when we were both in the same cohort during graduate school at Louisiana State University. Naomi is an independent and working artist and the Covid-19 outbreak has hit her hard financially with event cancellations, including many opportunities to sell, share, teach and promote her work. On the podcast, we discuss the fear and frustration that exists for many working artists right now and also the role an artist can play even if it doesn't involve making in a traditional sense.
If you are interested in checking out Naomi's work you can visit her website here and you can follow her heartfelt posts on Instagram @naomikclement.
If you are interested in purchasing a piece by Naomi (and have the funds to do so), you can find her work for sale @companiongallery and @euctectic_gallery.