Love, Auntie: Parables and Prayers for Sacred Belonging

You are welcome here anytime.

Where can we go when the world refuses to see us in our fullness? When culture reduces us to categories and stereotypes, and even our churches make us feel like we don't fit in? If we're blessed to have an Auntie--someone who, like Jesus, welcomes us wholly and calls us beloved--then we have glimpsed the liberation and divine affirmation of sacred belonging.

Time and again, Aunties have offered a model for undoing, becoming, and embracing our identities and deepest beliefs. Auntie culture, particularly in Black spaces, is immediately recognizable as an embodied experience where nieces, nephews, and "niblings" feel safe, heard, and seen. Aunties, whether biological or simply beloved kin, welcome us in.
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In Love, Auntie, Shantell Hinton Hill, aka Reverend Auntie, offers tender testimonies to a flock of loved ones who have been led to believe they do not belong. Through modern-day parables, prayers, and prompts for reflection, she invites readers to sit alongside the wisdom-bearing of Black women, lovingly known as Aunties, as they carve out space for doubts, questions, and spiritual expression that honors intersecting identities of race, gender, and class. Because trust and believe, Aunties always know how to turn mess into miracles.


Author: Shantell Hinton Hill
Publisher: Herald Press (VA)
Published: 11/04/2024
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781513814551

About the Author
Shantell Hinton Hill is a self-described Blerd (Black girl nerd) turned renaissance woman. A former engineer, she is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Hinton Hill works for the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation as a narrative change and communications strategist. She has an MDiv from Vanderbilt University and is pursuing a PhD in sacred rhetoric at Clemson University. Her work and writing are situated at the intersections of social justice, storytelling, Black feminism, and womanist theology. Her body of written work includes freelance think pieces, theological essays, poetry, and short stories/memoirs. Her debut poetry collection Black Girl Magic & Other Elixirs was published in 2023.