Charis welcomes Khristi Lauren Adams in conversation with Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes for a celebration of Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way. Black girls are leading, organizing, advocating, and creating. They are starting nonprofits. Building political coalitions. Promoting diverse literature. Fighting cancer. Improving water quality. Working to prevent gun violence.

From Khristi Lauren Adams, author of the celebrated Parable of the Brown Girl, comes Unbossed, a hopeful and riveting inquiry into the lives of eight young Black women who are agitating for change and imagining a better world. Offering practical lessons in leadership, resilience, empathy, and tenacity from a group of young leaders of color who are often neglected, Unbossed includes profiles of Jaychele Nicole Schenck, Ssanyu Lukoma, Tyah-Amoy Roberts, Grace Callwood, Hannah Lucas, Amara Ifeji, Stephanie Younger, and Kynnedy Smith.

These are the young Black women we will be reading about decades from now. Like their foremothers in earlier freedom movements, Black girls are transformational leaders. They are pacesetters, strategic thinkers, visionaries, mobilizers, activists, and more. Their stories may often be overlooked. But Black girls are leading the way.

Khristi Lauren Adams is a speaker, author, youth advocate and ordained minister from New Jersey. A graduate of Temple University and Princeton Theological Seminary, Adams is the Dean of Spiritual Life & Equity and instructor of Religious Studies at the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Khristi is the author of Parable of the Brown Girl, Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way and its middle grade version Black Girls Unbossed: Young World Changers Leading the Way. The books are published by Broadleaf and Beaming Books. Parable of the Brown Girl, Adams’ 2021 debut won the Best Young Adult Book from the New York Black Librarians Caucus and The African American Literary Awards. Adams founded the “The Becoming Conference,” an annual conference and leadership cohort designed to empower, educate & inspire young women. Khristi is a 2017 alum of Lead New Jersey, a selective, year-long program to educate, transform, and empower the next generation of leaders from the public, social, and private sectors. She serves on the advisory board for Word Made Flesh, a non-profit organization existing to serve among the most vulnerable in the world. Khirsti Lauren Adams lives in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes is a clinical psychologist, public theologian, and ecumenical minister whose work focuses upon healing the legacies of racial and gender oppression. A professor of practical theology and pastoral care at Columbia Theological Seminary, Dr. Chanequa is the author of I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation, Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength, as well as nearly two dozen journal articles and book chapters in theology and psychology.

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage

We will be archiving this event and adding closed captioning as soon as possible after airing so that it will be accessible to deaf and HOH people. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we begin this new way of connecting across distances.

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way--Khristi Lauren Adams in conversation with Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes