Red Lip Theology: Candice Benbow

Candice Marie Benbow situates her work at the intersections of beauty, baking, faith, feminism and culture, giving voice to Black women’s shared experiences of healing and journeying toward wholeness. She has written for various outlets including ESSENCE Magazine, Glamour Magazine, The Root, VICE, Shondaland, MadameNoire and the Me Too Movement. She was named by Sojourners as one of “10 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2020”.

In 2015, Candice created Red Lip Theology to encourage women to embrace themselves as good creation. Through Red Lip Theology, she merges theological ideals with beauty industry participation to celebrate Black women’s creativity and spirituality. Candice annually hosts a “Red Lip Revival”, using the hashtag #redliptheology, where women are encouraged to pair a red lip selfie with inspirational words. Her first book, “Red Lip Theology: Essays at the Intersection of Faith and Black Feminism”, is currently slated for release in 2022.

In May 2016, following the release of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, Candice created the #LemonadeSyllabus hashtag and social media campaign. With contributions from over 70 Black women, Candice released the syllabus as a free downloadable resource of over 250 works centered around the lives of Black women. Within the first week, it was downloaded over 40,000 times and has reached over 600,000 downloads. National and international libraries created "Lemonade Stands" to highlight the books from the Syllabus that were available. Universities in the United States and the UK have used the Lemonade Syllabus to design new Black feminist and womanist thought courses and many women formed book clubs to journey through the Syllabus together.

Some of Candice’s most important work has been partnering with religious institutions, faith leaders and communities to reimagine how faith can be a tool of liberation and transformation for women and girls. Through critical reflection of theological positions, communal practices and long held ideologies, Candice challenges these sacred spaces of influence to think critically about how they see God and the world.