Minister Onleilove (pronounced Onlylove) Chika Alston, Founder of Prophetic Whirlwind was born and raised in East New York, Brooklyn. Currently she is the Founder of Her Wisdom Consulting and the former  executive director at PICO-Faith in New York, where she leads 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 God’s children can live in dignity. Onleilove is also a community organizer, speaker, and writer.  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.

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. 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.”  She has completed 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; leading A Women’s Theology of Liberation and Live Free W.O.M.B. (Women Organizing Out of Mass Incarceration and Brutality) for the PICO Network. In 2016 Onleilove testified before the United Nations Working Group for People of African Descent Testimony on Mass Incarceration’s Impact on Black Women & Girls. She has been a featured speaker and workshop facilitator at CCDA, Dartmouth College, Why Christian, Sojourners' Summit, The 2015 African Hebrew Conference in Israel, and The Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference among other conferences, congregations, and organizations. For her writing and activism work, Onleilove has received the Public Allies New York Local Alumni Award, The Lost Angels Society Survivor Award, The Bennett Fellowship for Social Justice from Auburn Seminary, the National Association of Social Workers-NYC Scholarship for Social Justice, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Minority Coalition Young Adult Award, and the 2011 Evangelical Press Association’s Student Writer of the Year First Place Award for her Sojourners cover story: “Dethroning King Coal: Christians defend a way of life, and the earth, in Appalachia.” She is one of a few African-Americans that have visited and ministered among Jews in Africa and her first book on her research into these communities is Prophetic Whirlwind: Uncovering the Black Biblical Destiny. Onleilove has five siblings and a large extended family. She worships and serves as a Minister of Evangelism  at Beth-El The House of Yahweh where she serves as a Minister of Evangelism and is an active member of Inner City Light House. To learn more visit: PropheticWhirlwind.com.  For everything she has accomplished Chika says To Yah Be The Glory!

Posts By This Author

Extended Interview with Allen Johnson, co founder of Christians For The Mountains

by Onleilove Alston 06-01-2010

Onelilove Alston: What is your professional background?

Destroying West Virginia, One Mountain At A Time

by Onleilove Alston 06-01-2010

Christians battle King Coal to save Appalachia.

The Global Emergence Won't Be Televised

by Onleilove Alston 04-23-2010

[Read more of this blog conversation in response to the Sojourners magazine article " Read More

Beauty from Ashes

by Onleilove Alston 04-01-2010
The BQE, by Sufjan Stevens. Asthmatic Kitty Records.

Listening for the Call to Service

by Onleilove Alston 01-26-2010

After college I completed a year of service with Public Allies New York, an Americorps service program.

Live from New York: It's the New Conversation

by Onleilove Alston 01-08-2010

America's Pervasive Pattern of Race-Based Medical Disparities

by Onleilove Alston 12-03-2009
Our country has a long history of underserving and mistreating African-Americans and other marginalized groups.

Debunking the Beauty Myth

by Onleilove Alston 11-26-2009
Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, discusses how images fueled by consumerism are used against women.

Living Isaiah 61: Justice Work is My Song of Praise to God

by Onleilove Alston 07-08-2009

"I do the work of justice not out of a disdain for the privileged but out of a love for Life." - Womanist Theologian Dr. Kelly Douglas Brown

Economic Democracy: An Alternative to Pure Capitalism or Socialism

by Onleilove Alston 04-02-2009

Lent Devotional: The Triumphal Entry and the Poor People's Campaign Mule Train

by Onleilove Alston 03-19-2009
During this Lenten season The Poverty Initiative is inviting you to join us as we reflect on the last week in the life of Jesus and the last year of

Breaking Boundaries

by Onleilove Alston 03-01-2009

Seven ways to build a movement that includes poor and rich.

Being the Oaks of Righteousness: Domestic Workers United

by Onleilove Alston 02-16-2009
In the fall of 2007, not long after I started to work with New York Faith & Justice, I learned of an in-depth Bible study on http://www.bib

Election Night Unity, Online Animosity

by Onleilove Alston 12-08-2008
Jamie: We took a puzzle system of trains for about an hour or so until we pulled to an unexpected stop on the tracks, just feet from the platform of 125th Street.

What New Monastics Can Learn from History (Part 2)

by Onleilove Alston 10-17-2008
[continued from part 1] Out of a general respect for anyone who seeks to serve the inner city (I grew up in the housing projects of Brook

What New Monastics Can Learn from History (Part 1)

by Onleilove Alston 10-16-2008
The settlement house movement is the foundation of public welfare in the United States.

Bless the Hands that Prepare Our Food

by Onleilove Alston 07-11-2008

During this BBQ season we have to carefully consider what products are apart of our seasonal celebrations. Recently I attended the DC campaign kick-off for the Justice at Smithfield Campaign. "Smithfield Foods is the largest pork processor and producer in the world, the fourth largest turkey processor and fifth largest beef processor in the U.S." In the early 1990's Smithfield opened its Tar Heel, North Carolina plant, with [...]

Building the Beloved Community: 40 Years After MLK's Poor People's Campaign

by Onleilove Alston 06-16-2008

As I attended Pentecost 2008 I was reminded that Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign is celebrating its 40th anniversary. On Friday, Mary Nelson (Board Member of CCDA) and I facilitated a workshop on "Building the Beloved Community." Building the Beloved Community was one of the central messages of Dr. King's ministry. The Poor People's Campaign of 1968 [...]