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AskForShani

@askforshani.bsky.social
681 followers 251 following 48 posts

I write things. I speak things. Disrupting. Preacher. Podcaster. Antiracism coach. Loving my neighbor as myself. Storytelling. List creator. Artivist. Unusual, rare, and marvelous.

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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Two hard boiled eggs…..
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Sometimes Church Looks Like:
Sunday School Breakfast
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
A new Substack is out….
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Sometimes Church Looks Like: Creating Space for Hard, Holy Conversations
New Year’s Eve 2024, I said it out loud:
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Reposted by AskForShani
Presbyterian Outlook @presoutlook.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Number nine on our top news stories from 2025: “D.C. churches respond to federal show of force” D.C. churches unite against heightened federal policing, defending vulnerable neighbors and calling for justice over fear-based governance. #pcusa @askforshani.bsky.social @davidensign.bsky.social
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D.C. churches respond to federal show of force
D.C. churches unite against heightened federal policing, defending vulnerable neighbors and calling for justice over fear-based governance.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
It stripped away any illusion that love is abstract. It dismantled the version of faith that offers tidy answers in moments of unbearable pain. It taught us that survival is often quiet, slow, and communal. Blue Christmas
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Sometimes Church looks like: The Embodiment of Empathy and Presence
Disclaimer: This reflection deals with youth suicide and mental health.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
And in this season of waiting, longing, and becoming, Advent love reminds us that nothing, no grief, no fear, no system, no power, can separate us from the love of God. And once you have met that love, really met it, you cannot help but live it out loud.
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Sometimes Church Looks Like:
Love without boundaries
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Joy meets us in dry places…
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Sometimes Church Looks Like....
Joy Blooms in Dry Places
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Sippin and trippin
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Sippin and trippin
sipping coffee
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Sometimes church looks like….. Week 2 of Advent
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Stumbling and Wrestling with Peace
ADVENT WEEK 2- Peace
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
“Politics was supposed to be a shared responsibility — a way of protecting the collective good. Now it too often looks like the exploitation of the very people we’re called to represent.” New Substack is out…
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Sometimes Church Looks Like…
Civic Duty
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Love in any form, forms us.
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Sometimes Church Looks Like… Loving, Losing, and Letting Go
A story of love, friendship, and connection
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
A birthday poem!!!! Hello 50!
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Collard Greens
I was born on a Tuesday
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Choosing, Honoring and Living…. May it be so!
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Sometimes Church Looks Like Choosing, Honoring, and Living
A meditation on freedom, ambiguity, and loving God and neighbor beyond the lines
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
…..And another one!
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Sometimes Church Looks Like:
Many identities, many intersections, many........
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Sometimes Church Looks Like: Permission to Mourn Differently
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Sometimes Church Looks Like:
Permission to Mourn Differently
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Instead of crashing out I just write about!!!!
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Sometimes Church Looks Like:
Why Moaning Is Holy, and Silence Is Not
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
A new Substack is ready!
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Sometimes Church Looks Like:
Being Curious Enough to Get Free
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
He’s coming for us but our magic will never lose.
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Sometimes Church Looks Like Protecting the Most Vulnerable
Today It's Black Women: Tomorrow it may be you.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I'm attending Harriet’s Wildest Dreams's event, “Courtwatch DC Training” - sign up now to join me! #HarrietsDreams www.mobilize.us/hwd/event/52...
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Courtwatch DC Training · Harriet’s Wildest Dreams
Courtwatch DC is a growing DC-based program that provides the space and training for the community to observe local court proceedings in the District of Columbia and document our city’s policies in ac...
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
See you on the other side of freedom.
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Sometimes Church Looks Like Declaring War
It's time to choose a side.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Writing and living, living and writing. And all the in between. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
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Sometimes Church Looks Like: Getting Free from “I’m Sorry”
On Black womanhood, time, and the audacity to stop apologizing for existing.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
A new Substack is up. open.substack.com/pub/shanimci...
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Writing is life. ❤️❤️❤️
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Presbyterian Outlook @presoutlook.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
On sacred, trembling ground: Charleston and the spirit of womanist leadership Over 100 attendees from all denominations gathered for the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership Biennial Conference in Charleston, South Carolina. @askforshani.bsky.social
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On sacred, trembling ground: Charleston and the spirit of womanist leadership - The Presbyterian Outlook
Over 100 attendees from all denominations gathered for the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership Biennial Conference in Charleston, South Carolina. This year's conference honored the…
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Braid my hair. Another Substack.
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Sometimes Church Looks Like
✂️ Braid My Hair: Where Legacy, Liberation, and Love Meet at the Root
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
open.substack.com/pub/shanimci...
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Sometimes Church Looks Like
Road Trips, Lent Ends, Renewal Begins
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I just need my guy to surpass Strom’s 1957 filibuster. That’s how petty I am. Go, Cory, Go! I called Zora for him… “If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it!” Zora Neal Hurston
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
The framework has been written. And now an elderflower spritzer
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
Imagine being in a Black body and being told all your life to stay busy, to work, work, work. Only to go to the text and learn a new thing. A new perspective. A new understanding. Don’t believe me. Just go learn for yourself. Rest and growth. Rest. Grow. Bear fruit. Repeat.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Listening is where love begins. ❤️ Mr. Fred Rogers
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
1. So…. I got my nails done yesterday 2. My nail tech is like my biggest fan 3. She loves hearing where I just came from. If you want to know the rest just follow me on other platforms because I’m about to be at the character limit. Fall dates are available….
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
The gift that continues to give!!
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Gratefulness
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
I had to pitch in and serve food and I gotta tell It’s not my ministry. I served one time at a funeral some years ago. And Elder Jones said 1 piece of ham per person. My girl got so mad at me for following the rules. Then called everyone saying “Shani refused to give me two pieces of ham!”
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Let’s get free together.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
4 years ago when I had the joy and fear of interviewing Dr. Christine Hong for the NEXT Church National Gathering! I followed my gut and we talked about our grandmothers. ❤️❤️❤️ It was a God move. @nextchurch.bsky.social
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Presbyterian Outlook @presoutlook.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
The gift of active listening Shani McIlwain reflects on the power of active listening in coaching, fostering curiosity, empathy, and understanding to build stronger relationships. @askforshani.bsky.social
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The gift of active listening - The Presbyterian Outlook
Discover the power of active listening in coaching, fostering curiosity, empathy, and understanding to build stronger relationships.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Here we go. Let’s see what God gonna do!
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Farewell, Benefit of The Doubt
Welcome to my substack
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Why do people join a meeting late and then take up space to tell the entire group why they are late? We don’t care. The fact that with the world on fire you showed up. Good for you. Now, be quiet.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
I think I do some of my best creative work late in the midnight hour. Also—- I cannot wait to share what I was doing here in this photo. 😂😂😂 There will be a still shot that may look like I’m singing. That’s hilarious. #joy
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. Toni Morrison
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
I think the narrative of DEI is often undermined because the majority of people defending and explaining the benefits are Black and queer people but in the last 50 years White women have been the largest demographic who’ve benefited from such initiatives.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Check your calendars. Call me. Email me. Bless me so I can bless you. Let's work together to make something cook. 😂😂😂
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Another ancestor….💔💔💔 i hope i die warmed by the life that i tried to live Nikki Giovanni Farewell… Farewell. I know her and Uncle James are cutting up right now.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I’ve been sitting with nuance and privilege lately and on TDOR I know a lot of folx family, friend, acquaintances, foes, onlookers, etc… find trans issues hard to understand.
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾
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AskForShani @askforshani.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Pastor William got mad because I told these preachers AFTER I preached I ain’t been to seminary….. just yet. 😉😉😉 He said I learned everything I need to know about preaching I got from vacation Bible school. 😂😂😂😂😂 #CompellingPreaching #LutherSeminary #Whatisthelistenerhearing
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