Jesse Washington
The University of Central Arkansas welcomes award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Jesse Washington on Thursday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., in the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts as part of the Reynolds Performance Hall season’s 2023-24 Speakers Series.
Throughout his career, Washington’s works have focused on sports, race and society. Washington gained considerable notoriety as senior writer for ESPN’s “Andscape” since it launched in 2016 as “The Undefeated.” Among his award-winning pieces are “The Waco Horror,” a film about the 1916 lynching of another man named Jesse Washington; college coaches struggling with how to respond to the racial upheavals of 2020; and the mystery of the Michael Jordan statement “Republicans by sneakers, too.”
Washington’s books include “I Came as a Shadow,” the autobiography of former Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2021 and “Lucky Me,” the autobiography of sports agent Rich Paul.
Washington has been a director, writer or producer of several documentaries, including “March on Washington: Keepers of the Dream,” which traced the connections between Black Lives Matter and the original Civil Rights Movement and “Bearing Witness,” a story about the teenager who filmed the murder of George Floyd. Prior to joining ESPN, he worked for The Associated Press and as an editor at the magazines “Vibe,” “Blaze” and “Bounce.” He is a graduate of Yale University.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children/students. Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased at the Reynolds Box Office Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., online at uca.edu/reynolds or by calling UCA Ticket Central at (501) 450-3265 or toll-free at (866) 810-0012.
