Free Event, Partner Event
Partner Event | Invisible Giants: Honoring Black Women’s History
Date
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St.
Chicago,
IL
60614
United States
As efforts to rewrite the past intensify, we turn to history—and amplify it. Join us for an evening with Essence McDowell, Mariame Kaba, and other influential speakers as we confront erasure and celebrate the enduring impact of Black women’s contributions across generations.
At the heart of the event is the premiere of Invisible Giants, a documentary by McDowell, coauthor of Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping a History of Trailblazing Black Women in Chicago, that illuminates the untold stories of Black women in Chicago and underscores the importance of preserving and honoring these vital histories.
Hear from influential voices from across movements, education, and the arts to confront the silences in our collective history and amplify the contributions of Black women that have too often been diminished, ignored, or deliberately overlooked. Together, we reclaim space for the leadership, creativity and care that has shaped Chicago—and the nation.
We will also introduce a new standards-aligned curriculum, Lifting As We Teach. The resource is designed to empower educators to bring Black women’s histories into classrooms and connect young people to past legacies and future possibilities.
Free; RSVP required.
Schedule
6:00 p.m. – Reception
6:30 p.m. – Program begins
8:00 p.m. – Event concludes
Speakers
Essence McDowell is a writer, communications strategist and creative director. She is author of Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping A History of Trailblazing Black Women in Chicago, created in collaboration with Mariame Kaba and published by Haymarket books.
Essence is founder of Kemtiyu Arts & Media and cofounder of the Chicago Justice gallery. She has created over 80 public programs, community events, and symposia. She is also an arts leader and curator of numerous exhibitions including 2019 Black Chicago Resists, 2020 Belonging: Place, Power and Impossibilities, and the 2023 Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice.
With a vision of centering the legacies and current contributions of Black women in Chicago, Essence has ventured into filmmaking with her debut documentary project, Invisible Giants.
Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, librarian/archivist, and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. Kaba co-leads Interrupting Criminalization, an organization she cofounded with Andrea Ritchie in 2018.
She has cofounded multiple organizations and projects over the years including Project NIA, We Charge Genocide, the Chicago Freedom School, the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women, Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander (now Love & Protect), Just Practice Collaborative, Survived & Punished, Sojourners for Justice Press and For the People Leftist Library Project.
Kaba is the author of the New York Times bestseller We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Haymarket Books, 2021) and the national bestseller Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care with Kelly Hayes (Haymarket, 2023) among several other books that offer support and tools for repair, transformation, and moving toward a future without incarceration and policing.