The calendar says printemps but Mother Nature has different ideas, showering the New York region with a few inches of snow yesterday. While I haven’t yet hung up my ski boots for the season—I’ve logged 13 days this season at Killington, with more on tap—I’m ready to think spring.

April kicks off an active month on the sports side. On Wednesday April 4, I’m on the WW1 Centennial News podcast to talk about the war’s impact igniting basketball in France, and how the legacies of this play out today in Europe, the NCAA, and the NBA. You can listen live here, or wait until the edited episode is released later this week.  

Friday April 6 is the International Day for Sport, Development and Peace. Here in New York, I’ll mark the day at the Foundation for Sport, Development and Peace’s roundtable (info & registration here). Last year, I presented on how sport has been used historically to bridge cultures and build bonds between people in communities near and far. This year, I look forward to hearing from the lineup of great panelists, including Mara Gubuan, founder of Equality League.

Mid-month, I hit London for a series of sports diplomacy events and discussions with my colleagues at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS. Of note is the April 16 Australian Cultural Fields symposium, where David Rowe will tackle sport and media in Australia. I’m also excited for the April 18 talk on “Where does sport fit into diplomacy?” with Stuart Whigham, Jaeho Kang, and Simon Rofe. #sportdiplomacy

Then it’s back State-side. On Friday April 20, join me in Philadelphia for the 1968: Philly and the World conference. I’ll be chatting about how that year’s labor, youth, and media movements impacted the sports world, then and now. And, yes, the movements of '68 impacted the globalization of basketball. 

Rounding out the month is the April 26 Football Scholars Forum panel, which will feature Laurent Dubois’ new book, Language of the Game.

I’ll be posting a few items here and there during these events, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed (@lempika7) for more details.