The Under Review - Issue 4 | Summer 2021

49
This interview was conducted virtually and originally published as a podcast episode of ‘The Under
Review Presents With the Call: a podcast on sports & writing’ on February 11, 2021. It has been edited for
clarity and length.
Terry Horstman: My guest today is Maya Washington. Maya is a Under Review All-Star, author of the
poem Get Your Racket Back, Keep Your Eyes On It, about the Saint Paul MLK Tennis Buff, which we had the
privilege of publishing in our second issue and was one of our six Pushcart nominees from 2020. Maya is
also the host of the podcast Light and Shadow, and the director of several films including the documentary
Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, which will be published as a memoir this fall from Little A Books. Maya,
thanks for joining me today.
Maya Washington: Thanks for having me.
TH: I want to talk about your film first and I was wondering if you’d be kind enough to give a little pitch on
what Through the Banks of the Red Cedar is for any of our listeners who may not have seen it yet.
MW: Through the Banks of the Red Cedar follows my father Gene
Washington, who played for the Minnesota Vikings in the late 60s
and early 70s, and his experiences growing up in the segregated
south before being recruited to run track and play football at
Michigan State University at the peak of the Civil Rights
Movement in America. What was unique about his team at
Michigan State, is they were the first fully integrated college
football team in America. So he and his teammates were from
throughout the United States, but a number of them were
African-American and recruited from the south. They went on to
win back-to-back national championship titles, and my dad and
three (of his Spartans teammates) were drafted in the first round
of the NFL Draft in 1967.
It’s a story about family. It’s a father/daughter story. It’s a story
about race and the ways that sports play an important role in
changing and shaping culture. It’s about how my dad’s generation,
and of course those who came long before them, really paved the
way for the opportunities we see in sports today for people of all ethnic backgrounds, as well as women.
There’s just a lot of important history there and that’s sort of what Through the Banks of the Red Cedar
encapsulates.
ISSUE 4 | SUMMER 2021