NationSwell and Marguerite Casey Foundation are proud to present the third event in our book club series: “#SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence,” featuring Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw — professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School and co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Ms. Rhanda Dormeus, a member of the #SayHerName Mothers Network.

The #SayHerName movement began as an act of resistance and care: During a moment in which the killings of Black women at the hands of police were being met with dismaying silence by both the U.S. media and, as a consequence, the general public, the campaign was an invitation to speak aloud the names of the women whose lives had been stolen in an effort to honor and memorialize them.

In #SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence, Crenshaw traces the race and gender hierarchies that have long resulted in disproportionate rates of state-sponsored violence perpetrated against Black women. Those histories are supported by the stories of the lives lost that begin each chapter, told through the words of their mothers and sisters — grounding the tragedies in the lived experience of the survivors and providing insight into how police violence has shaped their lives and communities.

Through the lens of intersectionality — the analysis of how gender, class, and disability compound the racism and violence that communities of color face — Crenshaw seeks to shed light on the interlocking systems of power and privilege that give rise to state-sanctioned violence and mobilize narrative storytelling in service of protecting Black women.

Join us on Friday, May 10th in New York City for a conversation between Professor Crenshaw, Dr. Carmen Rojas, President & CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Ms. Rhanda Dormeus — whose daughter, Korryn Gaines, was killed by police in 2016. Together, we’ll learn how we can incorporate an intersectional approach in our own work for justice — and how we can best lend our own voices in service of naming and ameliorating the violence that harms Black women and girls.

“If you say the name, you’re prompted to learn the story, and if you know the story, then you have a broader sense of all the ways Black bodies are made vulnerable to police violence.” — Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw