A leading voice in Black feminist scholarship will take center stage at Ms. magazine headquarters in Los Angeles later this month, as Beverly Guy-Sheftall joins professor and dean emerita Bonnie Thornton Dill for a public conversation on her new book, Black! Feminist! Free!
The event, Thursday, April 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. PT, is free and open to the public. Attendees can expect an evening of reflection, dialogue and community, with light refreshments provided. Copies of Guy-Sheftall’s book will be available for purchase on site, followed by a signing hosted by Reparations Club. RSVP here!
The April 23 event will take place at Ms. HQ, located at 433 S. Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, with street-level parking available. Reserve a spot in advance.
Guy-Sheftall, widely regarded as a trailblazer in Black feminist thought, has spent more than five decades shaping the field through her scholarship, teaching and institution-building. She is the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College—the first center of its kind at a historically Black college or university—and has long served as the Anna Julia Cooper professor of women’s studies. Through her work, she has brought the intellectual contributions of Black feminists into sharper focus for both students and the broader public.
Her career began early: At just 16, Guy-Sheftall enrolled at Spelman College, later continuing her studies at Wellesley College and Atlanta University.
After beginning her teaching career at Alabama State University, she returned to Spelman in 1971—a move that would define her life’s work. There, she set out to challenge the silences surrounding Black women’s lived experiences, pushing institutional boundaries and helping to build a foundation for generations of scholars and activists.
The upcoming conversation with Dill—herself a distinguished scholar of race, gender and inequality—offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from two pioneering thinkers whose work has profoundly shaped feminist discourse.
