Join Dr. Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor in a discussion about her book “Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a notorious word and Me” on August 14th in Evanston, Illinois at Zora’s Place, local Black Feminist bookstore. Dr. Pryor will be in conversation with Natalie Y. Moore, senior lecturer at Northwestern University.

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is a professor of history at Smith College where she teaches courses on race, slavery and her father, comedic legend Richard Pryor. She is the award-winning author of the article “The Etymology of [N-Word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North” and a 2016 book Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War. Her viral TED talk on why it's hard to talk about the n-word has been viewed over two million times. Something We Said, Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me is Professor Pryor’s latest book (Simon & Schuster, 2026). A braided narrative that seamlessly integrates the history of the n-word with her own story of growing up half Black, half Jewish and all Pryor. Something We Said peels back the curtain on the life of the iconic comedian and interrogates the most perplexing word in the American lexicon, a word he helped popularize.

Natalie Y. Moore is a Chicago native and renowned journalist known for her reporting on segregation and inequality. For 17 years, she was a reporter and editor at WBEZ. Moore’s work has been broadcast on the BBC, Marketplace and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. She is the author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, winner of the 2016 Chicago Review of Books award for nonfiction and a Buzzfeed best nonfiction book of 2016.