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A group of white nationalists interrupted a book talk at Politics and Prose on Saturday with chants of “this land is our land.”

Author Jonathan Metzl was discussing his book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland at the flagship location in Chevy Chase when a group of about 10 people stormed in.

“They walked from the front to the back where the event was going on and then lined up abreast in front of the author, facing the audience. And one of the members of the group using a megaphone then proceeded to deliver a white nationalist message to everybody who was here,” says co-owner Bradley Graham. The incident took place on Indie Bookstore Day, a major event for many local bookstores. The inaugural National Antiracist Book Festival was also underway at American University; Politics and Prose was one of the event’s sponsors.

“This was in a very friendly environment at Politics and Prose. [The disturbance] was ironically at the moment in the talk where I was making the claim that America is better when we’re at the most generous, the strongest, the most inclusive ” Metzl said on MSNBC’s AM Joy. “I see this very well-organized chain of white men and women. … They were very well orchestrated.”

No one was injured and the incident lasted just a couple of minutes.

Several videos captured the scene:

It’s not the first time that Politics and Prose has found itself the target of white nationalists. The venerable bookstore was on the receiving end of a number of threats over the Pizzagate hoax that drew a gunman to Comet Ping Pong, which is located just down the block (“Obviously Comet Ping Pong was at the center of all of this but really most of the businesses in this block have been affected one way or the other,” Politics and Prose’s marketing director told DCist at the time).

More recently, the bookstore has contended with disruptions to several scheduled author talks. Protesters shouted Janet Napolitano down last month. Caught by surprise, that experience led owners Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine to reconsider how they handled an appearance by author Max Blumenthal after activists campaigned against it on social media. It also prompted them to consult experts on how to handle future such protests. Graham says that that staff members’ calm response on Saturday is a reflection of the conversations they’ve already had.

Though Politics and Prose hosts around 800 events a year, Graham could recall few other such incidents in the eight years since he and Muscatine took over.

“People understand what independent bookstores like Politics and Prose are here to do, and that is not simply to sell books but to serve as forums for free and open expression,” Graham says. “But especially as the political climate became more polarized and it became harder to get people to talk civilly and listen to one another, you know, on the one hand, the mission seems more important than ever. On the other hand, the risk of disruption has gotten greater.”

But he adds that he doesn’t fear something worse happening, like at Comet. “We’re just the venue. … To the extent that there have been disturbances, it’s [not been to stop Politics and Prose], but just groups trying to get their own particular message out.” Graham understands why the audience might have been afraid in the moment, “because you never know these days. But it hasn’t gotten to that point with us.”

The group of unidentified white nationalists showed up to Metzl’s talk unannounced, with a videographer in tow. A man with a megaphone described the group as “nationalists and identitarians.”

On the way out, they repeatedly chanted “AIM,” an apparent reference to the American Identity Movement, which is the rebranded name of the white supremacist group Identity Evropa. The group hosted a secret gathering at its new D.C.-area headquarters over the weekend, according to the left-wing media outlet Unicorn Riot. The outlet had reported that the American Identity Movement was planning a “short flash rally” along with museum visits and a conversation with a white nationalist author.

Earlier in the day, Metzl spoke at the National Antiracist Book Festival, which aimed to foster conversations around finding solutions to racist policies and ideas. “We’re in a space where these conversations are so necessary and it’s so important that [more people] have access to them,” Christine Platt, managing director of American University’s Antiracist Research & Policy Center, told DCist last week (disclsoure: AU holds the license for DCist’s parent company WAMU).

Metzl described the audience’s response as what was happening dawned on them. “Initially I think people thought, is this part of the presentation? People were a little bit shocked, and then people were quite terrified. And then there was this remarkable moment of bravery where people in the crowd started standing up and pushing back.”

On the same day, a 19-year-old white supremacist opened fire on a synagogue in San Diego.

“The scary part,” Metzl said on MSNBC, “was initially when we thought: are they armed?”

This story has been updated with comment from Bradley Graham and additional details about the group involved.

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