Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin, who writes about the politics of sports for the Nation magazine, is a unique voice in the world of sports writing one that is not afraid to look at the socio-political underpinnings of the industry.  According to David Meggyesy, the Western Regional Director of the NFL players Association, “Zirin never backs off on raising a larger perspective about the human and social implications of sport as we practice it in this country.” Author of A People's History of Sports in the United States and the recently published Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love, Zirin exposes “the modern day tyranny that has turned athletic entertainment into 'Gross' National Product” (Chuck D of Public Enemy). Peter Rachleff, Professor of History at Macalester College and author of Hard-Pressed in the Heartland, adds that Zirin’s work “shows us not only that sports can be a window through which we can examine the complex workings of race and class in this twisted, commercialized culture, but that it can also be a site of resistance.”

Nancy Rawles

Nancy Rawles, a novelist, playwright, and teacher, tackles issues of race, class color, and sexual identity in her work. In My Jim, her third novel, she gives voice to Sadie, the previously silent wife of Jim, the escaped slave in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.  According to the L.A. Times, Rawles “spent months researching the personal histories of slaves, traveling to Twain's hometown of Hannibal, Mo., and reading oral histories before writing My Jim.” For Rawles, the novel was an opportunity “to really bring out the individuals who lived this history, to get away from thinking about them en masse and get into the personal stories.” These unheard voices of slavery must locate their freedom  “in the shifting space of a song” or in  “love for the natural world or in the words of the slaves of old spoken in the Bible”  To Rawles, these voices are not just silent members of past generations; slavery is still with us today.  “[M]illions of people are currently enslaved in India, China, Brazil, Estonia, Kuwait, Nigeria (to name just a few) so we're still being called to be abolitionists”

Matt Smith

A man who wears many hats, he’s one of the nation’s most established improv artists, a sought after fund-raising auctioneer, a film actor, and a solo performance artist.  Matt’s screen credits include Spiderman, Sleepless in Seattle, Almost Live, Outsourced,The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, Whiteface, and Northern Exposure. 

He’s known in Seattle for his humorous monologues:  All My Children, My Last Year with the Nuns, My Boat to Bainbridge, Helium, and Beyond Kindness.  In his spare time, Matt is a partner in the popular web based cooking show, Cookus Interuptus.  Matt has taught thousands of people to improvise, and as a corporate consultant, brings the principles of improvisational theatre to the workplace.