Race In America Panel — with April Ryan, Paul Butler & Karen Attiah
April Ryan moderates another installment in her ongoing conversation series on race, politics, and current events. She will discuss both enduring and recent racial issues with legal scholar and MSNBC analyst Paul Butler and journalist and editor Karen Attiah, connecting the discussion to the panelists’ books and professional experience.
Ryan is a veteran White House correspondent who has covered urban issues from the White House for more than 28 years, beginning during the Clinton administration. She is the longest-serving Black member of the press corps, Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Black Press USA, and host of *The Tea with April Ryan* on Substack. She has served on the board of the White House Correspondents Association and is a member of the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club. Her books include *The Presidency in Black and White*, *At Mama’s Knee*, *Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House*, and *Black Women Will Save the World*, which examines Black women’s resilience, the significance of 2020, and their role in defending democracy.
Butler is the Albert Brick Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center and a legal analyst for MSNBC. His work centers on race and criminal justice, and he has served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice and as an appointee to the District of Columbia Code Revision Commission. His books include *Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice* and *Chokehold: Policing Black Men*, which was recognized by *The Washington Post* as one of the best nonfiction books of 2017 and was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award.
Attiah is an award-winning journalist, editor, and commentator whose work examines race, culture, gender, media, and international affairs. A former *Washington Post* columnist and founding Global Opinion Editor, she has reported from several countries, including Nigeria, Germany, and Curaçao, and has contributed to outlets including the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and Voice of America. She is a former Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, holds degrees from Columbia and Northwestern, and founded Resistance Summer School in 2025. She writes the Substack newsletter *The Golden Hour*.
When: Friday, November 6, 2026
Showtimes: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
Tickets: Free
Seating: First come, first served.
Livestream: A livestream option is provided through the event page.
Panel: April Ryan, Paul Butler, and Karen Attiah
Moderator: April Ryan
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. The venue says it will try to accommodate requests made up to the event time.
Related books: Event-related titles include April Ryan’s *Notes on a Blacklash: When a Black Woman Goes Viral*, listed at $28.00 in hardcover, and Paul Butler’s *Chokehold: Policing Black Men*, listed at $17.99 in paperback.
Run time: Not specified.