Carved and Created in Our Own Ways: Candice Marie Benbow

In her recent book, Red Lip Theology, our guest Candice Marie Benbow offers a set of essays rooted in the experience of Black womanhood, and an invitation for readers to rethink the comfortable theological categories they may have inherited.

Benbow writes powerfully about experiences at the heart of her Black womanhood. In honoring her single mother's love and triumphs--and mourning her unexpected passing--she finds herself forced to shed restrictions she'd been taught to place on her faith practice. And by embracing alternative spirituality and womanist theology, and confronting staid attitudes on body positivity and LGBTQ+ rights, Benbow challenges religious institutions, faith leaders, and communities to reimagine how faith can be a tool of liberation and transformation for women and girls.

Candice Marie Benbow is a theologian, essayist, columnist, baker, and educator whose work gives voice to Black women's shared experiences of faith, healing, and wholeness. Named by Sojourners as one of "10 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2020," she has written for Essence, Glamour, The Root, VICE, Shondaland, Madame Noire, and the Me Too Movement. Candice created the "Lemonade Syllabus" social media campaign, founded the media boutique Zion Hill Media Group, and, in memory of her mother, established The LouiseMarie Foundation to support HBCU nursing students and community mental health projects. A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Candice holds degrees from Tennessee State University, North Carolina Central University, and Duke Divinity School.