Candice Benbow is making waves in the blogosphere by reshaping the way Black girls think about love, faith, and femininity. In her new book, Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough, she weaves excerpts from her own life to weave a charming reimagining of what it means to navigate modern life as a Black church-going woman. We are also pleased to welcome writer and TV host Melissa Harris-Perry to the conversation! Join our special guests on the Front Row along with  host and MahoganyBooks co-owner Ramunda Young on February 8th at 7pm.

About Candice Benbow: Candice Marie Benbow is a multi-genre theologian who situates her work at the intersections of beauty, faith, feminism and culture, giving voice to Black women’s shared experiences of healing and journeying toward wholeness. Reimagining how faith can be a tool of liberation and transformation for women and girls, she challenges Black women to think critically about how they see God and the world.

Named by Sojourners as one of “10 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2020”, Candice has written for various outlets including ESSENCE Magazine, Glamour Magazine, The Root, VICE, Shondaland, MadameNoire and the Me Too Movement.

Her first book, Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough (Convergent Books), is slated for release January 11, 2022 and is currently available for preorder.

Recognizing the totalizing impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on Black and Brown communities, Candice served on the Ad Council’s Healthy and Whole Vaccine Awareness Steering Committee to establish best practices related to COVID-19 vaccine education within African American and Latinx communities of faith and create activities and events to encourage proper education and vaccination.

Committed to faith and gender equity, Candice is proud to be a 2021 participant in the Brookings Institution and Rockefeller Foundation’s flagship program, 17 Rooms, an experimental method for advancing the economic, social, and environmental priorities embedded in the world’s Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, Candice participated in Room 5, which focused on assembling and communicating a case for faith to advance gender equality.

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.

About the Book: A moving essay collection promoting freedom, self-love, and divine wholeness for Black women and opening new levels of understanding and ideological transformation for non-Black women and allies.

Blurring the boundaries of righteous and irreverent, Red Lip Theology invites us to discover freedom in a progressive Christian faith that incorporates activism, feminism, and radical authenticity. Essayist and theologian Candice Marie Benbow's essays explore universal themes like heartache, loss, forgiveness, and sexuality, and she unflinchingly empowers women who struggle with feeling loved and nurtured by church culture.

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.

About MahoganyBooks:  Derrick and Ramunda Young are owners/founders of the award-winning MahoganyBooks in Washington, DC where they focus on books for, by and about people of the African Diaspora. The couple have been featured in Oprah Magazine, TIME Magazine, Essence, Washington Post, Steve Harvey TV and Wall Street Journal among others.  Learn more at mahoganybooks.com.

Candice Benbow & Melissa Harris-Perry Discuss Red Lip Theology