Friday, May 8, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT

Backtalker: An American Memoir
A FAN program featuring Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, in conversation with Beth E. Richie, Ph.D. Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave., Door 6, Evanston, IL 60201

No registration required.

Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of Backtalker at the event, while supplies last.

In 2026, Critical Race Theory and intersectionality are among the most talked about and most misunderstood topics of the day. To truly understand where these ideas came from, you must start with the woman who founded them: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.

Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law Schools, Crenshaw is widely recognized for coining and developing both CRT and intersectionality. Her new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir, is the powerful and intimate story of how a spunky little girl from Canton, OH came up with a new way to look at the world and forever changed the way we talk about race, gender, and social justice. The examples from her own life, recounted with warmth, humor, and insight, illuminate how intersectionality emerged not from abstract ideas, but from lived experience.

Evoking each time and place like a gifted novelist, Backtalker takes readers from a Canton elementary school classroom to the back door of a Harvard club, and behind the scenes of some of the most consequential moments in race and gender over the last half century: the Anita Hill hearings, the launch of My Brother’s Keeper, the movement against police violence.

In a moment when her life’s work faces erasure and disinformation, Crenshaw’s story is both a call to action and a lesson in how understanding the past charts a course for the future.

Crenshaw will be in conversation with Beth E. Richie, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Black Studies and the Inaugural Chair in Social Sciences and the Humanities at The University of Illinois at Chicago. The emphasis of her scholarly and activist work has been on the ways that race/ethnicity and social position affect the experience of violence and criminalization, focusing on the experiences of Black women and gender non-conforming people.

This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded but not live streamed and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.

Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with Avoca D37, Bennett Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Countryside Day School, Evanston Township HS D202, Family Service Center, Foundation 65, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Kenilworth D38, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Lycée Français de Chicago, Magnetar Capital, Near North Montessori School, North Shore Country Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, UChicago Network for College Success, Wilmette Public Library, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.