I Won't Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You

by Ally Henny, Danielle Coke (Foreword by)

Overview

Ally Henny is a writer, speaker, advocate-minister, and vice president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, an organization committed to encouraging, engaging, and empowering Black Christians toward liberation from racism. She completed her MDiv from Fuller Seminary with an emphasis in race, cultural identity, and reconciliation, and she hopes to lead a church someday. Ally has been leading conversations about race on her social media and blog, The Armchair Commentary, since 2014, and her posts reach millions each month. She is a proud Chicago Southsider.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540902658
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/20/2023
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	53,504
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ally Henny is a writer, speaker, advocate-minister, and vice president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, an organization committed to encouraging, engaging, and empowering Black Christians toward liberation from racism. She completed her MDiv from Fuller Seminary with an emphasis in race, cultural identity, and reconciliation, and she hopes to lead a church someday. Ally has been leading conversations about race on her social media and blog, The Armchair Commentary, since 2014, and her posts reach millions each month. She is a proud Chicago Southsider.

Editorial Reviews

04/17/2023

In her impassioned debut, Henny, vice president of a Black Christian collective, motivates readers to “talk back to injustice” in a culture where Black women are criticized for everything from their hairstyles to “taking up more space than white people... think you should.” The author recounts her childhood in a small, predominantly white Missouri town where she was lauded for academic achievements, but nevertheless faced racism from classmates. As an adult, she attended a largely white church where it became clear that even when racism is acknowledged, it’s often done in a way that serves the majority: despite “passionate declarations against racism that could elicit hearty ‘amens’ ”, insidious marginalization in church culture went undiscussed. She explains that using one’s voice can take different forms, from calling out racism in everyday life to advocating for change on Capitol Hill. And while readers might meet pushback, they shouldn’t let others’ feelings silence them, though Henny acknowledges that having to leave once-welcoming spaces (such as a church) due to racism or microaggressions can still feel like a loss. Throughout, Henny is candid about her own path to self-acceptance—“I wasn’t always as outspoken about my loudness, my Blackness, or my womanness”—and her discussions of how racism can manifest in overt and subtle ways, from the church pew to the classroom, are smart and perceptive. Readers will be empowered. (June)

Publishers Weekly