Copley Connects _ Spring 2023

SPECIAL EVENT HONORING BLACK HISTORY & WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Six years of Black women authors. All titles are available in multiple formats at Copley Library. 2018 : Dr. Duchess Harris, Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA 2019 : Dr. Monique Morris, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools 2020 : Michelle L. Norris, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir 2021 : Dr. Anne C. Bailey, The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History 2022 : Heather McGee, The Sum Of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone And How We Can Prosper Together 2023 : Candice Marie Benbow, Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough

Copley Welcomes Author Candice Marie Benbow By V. Dozier, Education Librarian

(L to R): Misty Jones, San Diego Public Library Director; Featured author, Candice Marie Benbow; and Dean Theresa Byrd

Another year, another great collaboration with the San Diego Public Library (SDPL) to bring a dynamic speaker and scholar to the Black History & Women’s History Month event! This year, the USD and greater San Diego communities enjoyed two presentations from Candice Marie Benbow, theologian and author of Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough.

Benbow also reflected on her experiences as the daughter of a single mother in the Black church and the double standards and inequitable treatment of Black men and women in the church.

Prior to the event, Benbow graciously spent time at an intimate group dinner at USD’s La Gran Terraza restaurant with a number of USD faculty, staff, and alumni, SDPL staff, and San Diego community members. For nearly an hour, Benbow regaled event attendees with an introspective view into who she was in Red Lip Theology and the personal and professional growth experienced since its writing. Anecdotes included generational responses to her work — especially the

laughter—inducing gentle scolding from a 90+ year old church elder about Benbow’s sexual encounters appearing in the book. Benbow also reflected on her experiences as the daughter of a single mother in the Black church and the double standards and inequitable treatment of Black men and women in the church. Benbow’s presentation expertly wove a braid, layering how feminism, spirituality, beauty, and cultural connections can lay the path of understanding and wholeness. Benbow ended the event with a book signing, in which eager attendees, including yours truly, lined up to speak briefly with her and get their Red Lip Theology copies signed. The Copley Library/SDPL planning committee will meet soon to begin planning the 2024 Black History & Women’s History Month event.

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