PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — The Peoria Riverfront Museum is continuing to honor the legacy of the late comedian Richard Pryor during its Museum Conversations series featuring his daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor.
“This is huge, I feel like it’s been a long time coming as a Peoria native myself, for the city to really embrace Richard Pryor’s life,” said Everley Davis, the director of community engagement and assistant curator for the museum. “Yes, he had a complicated life. There’s a drug addiction and all kinds of things. But nobody’s perfect.”
Dr. Pryor will have a discussion and book signing centered around her book Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me. This is her first visit to Peoria since 1978.
“Her being a professor of African American History at Smith College and having the scholarship of the history of the N-word. And then this complicated relationship of being raised as Jewish and Black. And her father being Richard Pryor and using the N-word and making that big in his comedy,” added Davis. “She’s really mining the ideas and navigating that space of what does this word mean, how we do use it and how does it translate into our larger social conversation.”
The event is Aug. 11 at 6 p.m. For ticket information, click here.
