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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Social Justice / Race

Race

Our race keynote speakers are inciting real change: exposing the harmful policies and hidden biases that unfairly tip the playing field, and transforming them through art, photograph, film, writing, music, activism and more.

14 Race
Speakers

Andrea Elliott

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist | Author of Invisible Child

We need to address the deep historical roots of poverty, racism and equality.

Laura Huang

Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University | Faculty Director of Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative | Author of Edge

Are you looking for an edge to help you succeed? Guess what—you've already got one.

Gabby Rivera

Author of Juliet Takes a Breath and the Marvel comic series America

Living a revolutionary life starts with joy.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Founder of theBoardlist | Former president of StubHub | CEO OF XERO | Author of Choose Possibility

In a volatile world, our biggest opportunity lies in revolutionizing our relationship with risk.

Jelani Cobb

New Yorker Staff Writer | Columbia Journalism School Dean | Speaker on race, history, politics and culture in America

In the fight for racial justice, we must face the past to forge a better future.

Minnijean Brown-Trickey

Civil rights legend who helped desegregate public schools

When we challenge what we know to be morally wrong, we grow as a society.

Anthony Wilson-Smith

CEO of Historica Canada | Former Editor-in-Chief at MacLean's

To find out how to best move towards the future, we must look to the past.

Jonathan Metzl

Physician | Director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University | Award-winning author of Dying of Whiteness

Gun violence is a symptom of our nation's unresolved conflicts. We need to step back and think of the broader questions if we want to build a better, healthier world.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School | Co-Host of Some of My Best Friends Are | Author of The Condemnation of Blackness

There is a gap between our aspiration for racial equity and our actualization of it.

Bill Strickland

An Extraordinary Business and Community Leader

Give people the tools they need, treat them with respect, and they will perform miraculous deeds.

LaToya Ruby Frazier

Award-winning photographer | Associate professor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago | MacArthur Genius

Art is a weapon. Photos can change society—our view of ourselves and our communities.

Soraya Chemaly

Author of Rage Becomes Her | Award-winning journalist | Co-Founder and Director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project

Our emotions aren't weaknesses. They're tools that we can use for greater personal and organizational success.

Shaun King

Activist | Founder & CEO of The North Star | Author of Make Change

If you've ever wondered what you would do if you were alive in the Civil Rights Movement, now is the time to find out.

Shalini Kantayya

Award-winning filmmaker | Director of TikTok, Boom. and Coded Bias | TED Fellow

A digital world comes with digital dangers—here’s how to protect ourselves and our rights.

Titus Kaphar

2018 MacArthur Fellow | Award-Winning Painter and Sculptor

Art isn’t about making pretty pictures. Images should be as challenging as the issues we face.

Bryant Terry

Award-winning author of Black Food | James Beard Leadership Award Winner | Founder of 4 Color Books

We need to open a transparent dialogue about food insecurity, structural racism, and poverty.

Mira Nair

Director of Queen of Katwe, Salaam Bombay!, The Namesake, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Every film is a political act; it’s how you see the world.

Waneek Horn-Miller

Olympian, Activist, and Speaker on Indigenous Health and Reconciliation

Your struggle is your motivation in disguise.

Angela Davis

Legendary human rights activist

We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.

Angie Thomas

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Concrete Rose and The Hate U Give

Young Black people need stories about how their dreams, voices, and lives matter. How do we tell those stories?

Shivani Siroya

Founder and CEO of Tala

Radical trust is the currency driving the future of our financial institutions.

Spike Lee

Oscar-Winning Director of BlacKkKlansman, Do the Right Thing, and When the Levees Broke

Film plays a central role in illuminating modern issues of race and representation.

Jeff Chang

Social Historian, Cultural Critic & Community Organizer | Author of We Gon’ Be Alright and Can't Stop Won't Stop

Real solidarity and racial justice begins when we bring community into everything we do.

Teju Cole

Professor of Creative Writing at Harvard | Author of Black Paper | Former Photography Critic for NYT Magazine

This is a time for protest and activism, but it is also a time for subtlety, ambiguity and complexity.

Jessica Nordell

Author of The End of Bias | Award-winning science and culture journalist

Bias has a real cost for your company. Fighting it is your greatest superpower.

Greg Hoffman

Nike's Former Chief Marketing Officer | Author of Emotion by Design

Great brands don’t simply reach customers: they create real emotional bonds with them.

Nikole Hannah-Jones

Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project | Executive Producer of The 1619 Project Hulu Docuseries | MacArthur Genius

There isn’t a beat you can cover in America—education, housing—where race is not a factor.

Wanuri Kahiu

Acclaimed Writer & Director of Rafiki | Co-Founder of AFROBUBBLEGUM

Embracing joy is an act of resistance, power, and creativity.

Negin Farsad

Social justice comedian | Director of The Muslims Are Coming! | Author of How to Make White People Laugh

We can dispel Islamophobia—and other forms of hatred—through jokes.

Lera Boroditsky

Cognitive Scientist | Expert in the Fields of Language and Cognition

How do humans get so smart? Language: it shapes our minds and the world around us.

Annette Gordon-Reed

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of On Juneteenth | Harvard professor | MacArthur Genius

Telling the essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s profound importance to American history.

Michelle Coles

Civil Rights Attorney | Award-winning author of Black Was the Ink | Former civil rights attorney at the US Department of Justice

To achieve racial justice today, look to the unsung heroes of American history.

George M. Johnson

New York Times Bestselling Author Of All Boys Aren’t Blue & We Are Not Broken | Emmy Nominee | LGBTQIA+ Activist

Stories of queer identity and Black joy have the power to educate us on diversity, inspire social justice activism, and build community.

James Kirchick

Author of instant New York Times bestseller Secret City | Tablet Magazine columnist | Award-winning journalist

The unsung gay heroes who quietly revolutionized society prove that ordinary people can make extraordinary change.

Hua Hsu

Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Stay True | New Yorker staff writer | CBS Sunday Morning contributor

Telling our own stories enlarges the circumference of our imaginations.