Backtalker

Backtalker is a must read … The inspiring life of the Black American activist and legal scholar who changed the way the world thinks about race … hers is not only a life well lived, but one worth learning about * Guardian *
Backtalker charts Crenshaw’s extraordinary journey from precocious child to renowned public intellectual … A rousing call to see the story of the future as one in which ‘the spirit of freedom was nurtured by talking back’ – Colin Grant * The New York Times *
Crenshaw frames her life and her remarkably influential career as one long fight against various forms of exclusion and unfairness … The reasonable conclusions of a clear-eyed intellectual who simply refused to shut up about what she witnessed and experienced – Kelefa Sanneh * The New Yorker *
A beautifully written, compelling and insightful memoir from the extraordinary intellectual, activist and scholar who has shaped critical discourse in America. A moving and powerful read – Bryan Stevenson
A searing, defiant and deeply inspiring memoir for our times from one of America’s greatest architects of justice – V (formerly Eve Ensler)
It is rare that creators of movements that shake the world use the memoir form to honestly and precisely explore how their will to change was created. Kimberlé Crenshaw has made a fleshy piece of theory, a foundational book for this nation, a moving memoir that will continue to build on the monumental work Crenshaw has already done. We will thankfully be feeling the work of this book for generations – Kiese Laymon
Kimberlé Crenshaw is one of America’s most original legal thinkers, a pioneering theorist whose scholarship has transformed the way we think about race, gender, and the law. Now in Backtalker, her powerful new memoir, she reminds us of the greatest teacher of all: experience. Here is a compelling account of the making not only of a visionary mind on the front lines of change, but of the ‘we’ that binds us to one another in families, communities, and in the nation as a whole – Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Her ideas have shaped generations of thinkers and activists globally. Now, with Backtalker, we come to understand the people and contexts that have given shape to Kimberlé Crenshaw, her values and her sensibilities. This in-depth self-portrait reveals a woman of great depth, courage, and conviction—a truth teller and justice seeker. It is a tale as unique and compelling as its author, a much needed story for our times and beyond – Farah Jasmine Griffin
My feminist hero is Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw … We live in turbulent times, and I think it’s in part thanks to Dr Crenshaw that more marginalised voices are now speaking up – Munroe Bergdorf
Kimberlé Crenshaw is a national treasure – Kerry Washington

Kimberle Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. She was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory, and is also known for introducing and developing the concept of intersectionality.

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