Episode 45: Meet Minister Onleilove Alston

Why IT Matters Podcast with Leroy Barber

For more info on Onleilove and her book please go to https://propheticwhirlwind.com

This episode features spoke word piece Nailed Hands by Amena Brown Owen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBi7MQNl14A&list=PLsg8KOmNODyn72qsCBSMdWRNv5kaQbHQX

Minister Onleilove (pronounced Onlylove) Chika Alston, Founder of Prophetic Whirlwind was born and raised in East New York, Brooklyn. Onleilove is also a community organizer, speaker, and writer.

Having experienced poverty and homelessness, she has developed a compassion for people fueled by her passion for justice and knows that the gospel is truly “good news to the poor.” Even in the midst of difficulties at 10-years old her spiritual journey started with feeling led to pray and read the Psalms morning, noon and night. At 14-years old she walked into a Brooklyn congregation and accepted Yahshua as her redeemer. After her life changing experience with Yahshua she began to want to take the Good News to her community.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Human Development with a minor in African-American studies from Penn State University, she completed a year of service with AmeriCorps Public Allies New York. In 2011, she received her Master of Divinity and Master of Social Work degrees from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University School of Social Work, respectively.

For over a decade Onleilove worked as a faith-rooted community organizer and advocate. In 2018 she founded Her Wisdom Consulting where she consults non-profits, NGOs and companies on Women’s Leadership, faith based organizing, diversity and inclusion. Her writing has been featured in Sojourners Magazine, Huff Post Religion, The Black Commentator and NPR’s On Being blog, as well as in other print and online publications. Onleilove served as the second executive director at PICO-Faith in New York, where she led a multiracial and multifaith organizing federation of 70+ congregations representing 80,000 New Yorkers who are working to Build the Beloved City-where all of The Creator’s children can live in dignity. She has completed the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, The Collegeville Institute Fellowship and the FPWA Faith and Justice Fellows Program. Onleilove writes and lectures on the implicit bias of colorism and its impact on African-American women; having developed A Women’s Theology of Liberation and Live Free W.O.M.B. (Women Organizing Out of Mass Incarceration and Brutality) for the Faith in Action Network. In 2016 Onleilove testified before the United Nations Working Group for People of African Descent on Mass Incarceration’s Impact on Black Women & Girls.

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