Fill the void. Lift your voice. Say Her Name.
Black women, girls, and femmes as young as seven and as old as ninety-three have been killed by the police, though we rarely hear their names or learn their stories. Breonna Taylor, Alberta Spruill, Rekia Boyd, Shantel Davis, Shelly Frey, Kayla Moore, Kyam Livingston, Miriam Carey, Michelle Cusseaux, and Tanisha Anderson are among the many lives that should have been.
#SayHerName provides an analytical framework for understanding Black women's susceptibility to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, and it explains how—through black feminist storytelling and ritual—we can effectively mobilize various communities and empower them to advocate for racial justice.
Centering Black women’s experiences in police violence and gender violence discourses sends the powerful message that, in fact, all Black lives matter and that the police cannot kill without consequence. This is a powerful story of Black feminist practice, community-building, enablement, and Black feminist reckoning.
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“The lack of visibility of Black women has changed—and the incredible work of Kimberlé Crenshaw, African American Policy Forum, and the #SayHerName campaign are examples of this. So is this powerful book.”
—Janelle Monáe, from the Foreword
“Kimberlé Crenshaw is a national treasure.”
—Kerry Washington
“The United States does not value Black life—and white supremacy threatens all of humanity. The Black women’s stories of state violence and public silence featured in this powerful and inspiring book are extremely important. We bear children, so when they are robbed from us, it’s like our own breath is taken away. We thank the #SayHerName campaign and Kimberlé Crenshaw and Janelle Monáe for uplifting our stories. The African American Policy Forum is a vital platform for Black voices.”
—Samaria Rice, founder, Tamir Rice Foundation, and mother of Tamir Rice
"Reading #SayHerName is an act of solidarity, refusal, and love. Every piercing story in this book, every Black woman heartlessly murdered by the police, had a mother, a sister, a family, a community. Every one of them matters."
—V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of The Vagina Monologues and Reckoning
"In addition to breaking the silence by offering poignant and loving stories of the black girls and women violated by state violence, #SayHerName also documents the organizations and strategies that have been created to combat that violence. In its powerful accumulation of memories and testimonies, we should read this book, then, as providing the resources for a much-needed movement.”
—Roderick A. Ferguson, Yale University
Other books of interest
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How We Get Free
Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor -
Abolition. Feminism. Now.
by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, et al. -
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (Expanded Second Edition)
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Assata Taught Me
by Donna Murch -
We Do This 'Til We Free Us
by Mariame Kaba