Candice Marie Benbow

​

A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Candice is a graduate of Tennessee State University, North Carolina Central University, and Duke Divinity School. Currently, she is a doctoral student at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University.

In 2015, she created ""Red Lip Theology"", a movement to encourage young Black women to embrace their whole selves as good creation. Through writing, Candice seeks to tell stories of loss and healing. Following the release of Jay Z’s thirteenth studio album “4:44”, Candice wrote “4:43”, chronicling the stories of women who are caught on the underside of the growth of men. It has been read over 300,000 times and shared over 100,000 times across social media. In addition to her own blog, her work has appeared in Urban Cusp Magazine, ShePreaches Magazine, Ebony.com, For Harriet and Patheos. Candice has appeared on Essence Now and Huff Post Live. Currently, she is a regular contributor to “The Glow Up” at The Root.

As a public educator, Candice cares about bridging the academy and community through digital projects. 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. In February 2017, Candice collaborated with The Elle.com Media Scholars at the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University, under the direction of Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, to create the A Seat at the Table Syllabus (#SeatSyllabus) in response to Solange Knowles’ powerful album of the same name.