Josephine Baker’s spying past will be revealed on Wednesday evening at the Spy Museum. Image courtesy of the Spy Museum.

DCist’s guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

Monday:
>> At 6:30 p.m., the 14th Street Busboys hosts environmental leader Dr. Vandana Shiva, who will be discussing and signing several of her books, including Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.

>> Also tonight is a book talk with Angels and Ages author Adam Gopnik at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose. He’ll be talking “about Lincoln and Darwin, who were born on the same day and radically changed views of the modern world.”

Tuesday:
>> Tonight at 7 p.m. is our Emerge Exposed panel discussion, presented at Flashpoint in collaboration with the Pink Line Project. The event is currently sold out, so if you haven’t made a reservation, but still want something arty to do this evening, we’ve got just the thing.

>> From 6:30 to 8 p.m., Transformer Gallery and the Goethe Insitute team up to present What We Want Is Free: An Exploration of the Field of Non-profit Visual Arts Organizations as part of Transformer’s Summer Camp program. Panelists include Mark Allen of LA’s Machine Project, Wendy Clark from the NEA, Steven Rand from NYC’s Apexart, Don Russell from Provisions Library, and Transformer’s Executive Director, Victoria Reis. At the Goethe Institute.

>> At 6:30 p.m. the L Street Borders hosts The Gamble author Thomas E. Ricks. His new book reveals “behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders,” including “that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge.”

Wednesday:
>> Tonight at 7 p.m., head to U Street’s Hamiltonian Gallery for a talk with artist Mark Cameron Boyd, whose work is currently on view at the gallery.

>> The Spy Museum reveals that famed African-American singer and dancer Josephine Baker also served as a spy during World War II. Tonight, former CIA chief of disguise Jonna Mendez will be discussing “Baker’s intelligence work and placing it in the context of her exciting and celebrated life” at 6:30 p.m. $15.

>> Or, at 7 p.m., National Geographic hosts the fifth annual Small Nations Poetry Reading. This year’s event is environmentally themed, and will feature nine ambassadors who will “read poetry from the countries they represent, in English and in their native languages.”

>> Also tonight, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the Newseum hosts a discussion titled Godless Public Schools — Fact or Fiction?. Panelists Jeremy Gunn, Melissa Rogers, Colby May and Charles Haynes will debate the controversial Abington School District v. Schempp Supreme Court ruling which “struck down state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading [and] stirred emotional debates in 1963.” Free with museum admission.